Federal Target Letter Defense

A target letter is a letter from a federal prosecutor, usually an Assistant United States Attorney, telling a person that they are a target of a federal grand jury investigation: that the government believes it has substantial evidence linking them to a crime and considers them a likely defendant. It usually names the law under investigation in general terms, asks the person or their lawyer to contact the prosecutor, and may offer them the chance to testify before the grand jury. It often comes with the government’s advice of rights: that the person may refuse to answer any question whose truthful answer would tend to incriminate them, and that anything they say may be used against them by the grand jury or in a later proceeding.

The letter is not a charge. No indictment has been returned, and Justice Department policy encourages prosecutors, in appropriate cases, to notify a target a reasonable time before seeking one, so that the person can decide whether to testify. Some investigations end without charges. But the letter means the investigation is well along, and that what the person does in the next weeks matters.

Bedi & Singer represents targets, subjects and witnesses of federal investigations in the Northern District of Illinois, at the Dirksen courthouse a block from its office, and in federal courts across the country. A person who has received a subpoena rather than a letter will find that situation on Bedi & Singer’s Grand Jury Subpoenas page.

Federal prosecutors sort the people in an investigation into three groups. A target is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking them to the commission of a crime and who, in the prosecutor’s judgment, is a putative defendant. A subject is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the investigation. A witness has information and, as the government sees it for now, no exposure of their own. The first two terms come from the Justice Department’s manual rather than from a statute, and they can change as the investigation goes on.

The label decides how the government deals with the person. A target or subject who is subpoenaed receives the advice of rights, and a target is told that their own conduct is under investigation. An officer or employee of a company that is a target is not automatically a target on that account. Much of counsel’s early work is learning which label the government has attached to the client, and why.

The first instinct, to call the prosecutor and explain, is the one to resist. Anything said to an agent or a prosecutor is evidence, and a knowingly and willfully false, material statement in a federal investigation is its own felony, even where the matter under investigation never results in a charge (18 U.S.C. § 1001). The letter should be answered by a lawyer.

The second instinct is to tidy up: to delete messages, to clear a phone, to talk to the colleague or the friend who was there. Knowingly destroying, altering or concealing a record with intent to obstruct a federal investigation is its own felony (18 U.S.C. § 1519), and so is corruptly persuading, threatening or intimidating a witness to withhold testimony or to change it (§ 1512(b)). The investigation need not be a case yet; the obstruction statutes reach conduct taken in contemplation of one. So nothing is deleted, nothing is altered, and no one who may be a witness is contacted about the facts.

The person keeps the letter, notes the date and the name on it, and tells counsel who else has been contacted: a bank, an employer, a business partner who has mentioned an interview.

Counsel contacts the prosecutor named in the letter. That first conversation reveals the scope of the investigation, the statutes at issue, the client’s status, and the government’s timetable, and the prosecutor learns that further contact goes through counsel.

What follows depends on what the government has. Counsel may present the client’s position in a written submission or a meeting, and argue that the evidence supports no charge, a lesser one, or a resolution before indictment. The government may propose a proffer, a meeting in which the client answers questions under a written agreement that limits how the statements can be used against them. A proffer can help, but it can also give the government leads and a statement to use against the client later, so it is agreed to only after counsel knows what the government knows. A target is rarely compelled to testify; if the government does compel testimony by a court order of immunity, the testimony and anything derived from it cannot be used against the witness in a criminal case, except in a prosecution for perjury, a false statement or a refusal to comply with the order (18 U.S.C. §§ 6002, 6003).

If a charge comes, the work done before it carries over: the defense already knows the government’s theory and its evidence and has prepared for the first appearance and the question of release. Most federal offenses must be charged within five years of the offense, though some statutes allow longer or set no limit, and the clock can be paused; an investigation can run for much of that time.

Jonathan Bedi and Dena Singer handle Bedi & Singer’s federal investigations together. Clients are told what the letter means, what the government is likely to have, and what each choice risks, and every investigation is handled as though it will become a case to be tried.