On May 11, 2023, the US Supreme Court issued decisions in two significant cases that will further define the future of mail and wire prosecutions, particularly in the context of public corruption: United States v. Ciminelli...more
Two facially unrelated decisions, issued last week by the First Circuit and the Supreme Court, continued a recent theme of courts pushing back against potential prosecutorial overreach in the application of fraud...more
Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States tossed the convictions of two defendants found guilty of public corruption charges during former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s term. The opinions, Ciminelli v. United States and...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided three cases against the United States, with the Court rejecting the government’s attempt to prosecute or penalize private citizens under what the Court deemed to be overly expansive...more
The Supreme Court yet again unanimously overturned bribery convictions based on prosecutorial overreach via the honest services wire fraud statute. The steady stream of reversals fundamentally challenges the DOJ’s approach in...more
In a pair of criminal cases , the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a one-two punch to the Justice Department’s prosecution of corruption cases based on violations of the criminal wire fraud statute. In Ciminelli v. U.S., and...more
On May 11, 2023, in Percoco v. United States, 598 U.S. ___ (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court once again reined in an expansive public corruption prosecution brought by the Department of Justice by overturning a wire fraud...more
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on November 28, 2022, on whether lobbyists should be held to the same ethical standards as public officials. “When a public official accepts money to convince the government to...more
The Supreme Court’s decision in the McDonnell case was expected. It was evident that the Supreme Court was going to reverse the convictions when it granted a stay of McDonnell’s sentence and agreed to hear the case....more
On June 27, 2016, the United States Supreme Court unanimously vacated the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on corruption charges and remanded the case for retrial. As discussed below, the impact of the...more
Last week, in McDonnell v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the bribery convictions of Bob McDonnell, the former governor of Virginia. In doing so, the unanimous Court rejected prosecutors’ expansive...more
Earlier this week the United States Supreme Court handed former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell a big victory by reversing his 2014 conviction for “accepting payments, loans, gifts, and other things of value from [Johnnie]...more
On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, narrowing the definition of an “official act” in federal corruption cases. McDonnell v. United States, No. 15-474 (2016)....more
On June 27, 2016, in an 8-0 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded to the Fourth Circuit the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell on honest services fraud charges and charges that Governor...more
On June 27, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States decided McDonnell v. United States, No. 15-474, holding that under the Hobbs Act and federal honest services fraud statute, the “official act” that is exchanged for...more
In This Issue: - Eleventh Circuit Holds that Production of Foreign Bank Account Records May be Compelled in Criminal Investigation Under Required Records Exception to Fifth Amendment Privilege - Supreme Court...more