Oral Argument in Supreme Court Case on Trump Immunity Discussing the Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (4/26/24)

I have written many blogs over the years on the defraud conspiracy (aka Klein conspiracy) in 18 USC § 371, here. I collect at the end of this email some of the more noteworthy (in my imagination) of those blogs on the subject I discuss today. That subject is the potential breadth of the defraud conspiracy, particularly when the Supreme Court interpreted the word “defraud” in § 371 to not be limited to fraud in the usual federal law criminal sense to require some taking or intent to take property. In Hammerschmidt v. United States, 265 U.S. 182, 188 (1924), the Court held that the defraud conspiracy certainly means to cheat or attempt to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct lawful governmental functions “by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest” even if no fraud in its normal meaning is the object. As interpreted, that means defraud includes simply an object of the conspiracy to impair the lawful functions of Government. The Hammerschmidt interpretation of defraud was an outlier from the normal interpretation and was not based upon any objective indication that Congress meant the broader interpretation. But, as noted, Hammerschmidt is a long-ago case that is now entrenched in jurisprudence (perhaps even settled law, as some Justices used the term to get past confirmation hearings). (Note, however, that in the current Supreme Court settled law may not be settled after all.)

In yesterday’s oral argument in Trump v. United States, No. 23-939 (4/25/24) (Transcript here; and docket here), the defraud conspiracy came up at least briefly. That is perhaps not surprising because the indictment, CL here, alleged the defraud conspiracy as Count One. The oral argument focused on Presidential immunity for conduct alleged in various counts (including the defraud conspiracy and the two counts under 18 USC § §  1512 (Counts Two and Three). The focus was on presidential immunity rather than the contours of the statutes. 

I don’t propose to discuss the issue of presidential immunity here. My purpose is to relate the discussions of the potential scope of the defraud conspiracy, § 371, aka Klein conspiracy.

Justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh engaged at least glancingly with Michael R. Dreeben, Counselor to the Special Counsel, Jack Smith. I offer the excerpts (with some surrounding potentially relevant content; page numbers are indicated in brackets with asterisk (e.g. [*97]]):

[*97]

JUSTICE ALITO:

* * * *

MR. DREEBEN:

* * * *

[*98]

And making a mistake is not what lands you in a criminal prosecution. There's been some talk about the statutes that are at issue in this case. I think they are fairly described as malum in se statutes, engaging in conspiracies to defraud the United States with respect to one of the most important functions, namely, the certification of the next president.

JUSTICE ALITO: Well, I don't want to dispute the particular application of --of that, of 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States, to the particular facts here, but would you not agree that that is a peculiarly open-ended statutory prohibition? In that -that fraud under that provision, unlike under most other fraud provisions, does not have to do --doesn't require any impairment of a property interest.

3rd Circuit Rejects Argument to Extend Marinello Pending Proceeding Requirement for Tax Obstruction to the Defraud Klein Conspiracy (1/10/22)

In United States v. Desu, 23 F.4th 224  (3rd Cir. 1/7/22), CA3 here and GS here, the Court affirmed a conviction of Desu for “tax fraud.”  The Court rejected several arguments but apparently wrote the precedential opinion to clarify the standard of review for an “an evidentiary hearing as provided in Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 (1978).”  The Franks hearing is a general process in criminal cases rather than related to tax, so I don’t discuss it here.

The Court did address, rather perfunctorily, a tax crimes issue that has been discussed several times on this blog – whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Marinello v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018), holding that a pending administrative proceeding is required for tax obstruction can apply to and limit the tax defraud conspiracy (the Klein conspiracy) that arguably is sufficiently similar to tax obstruction as to warrant a pending administrative proceeding limitation.  The consensus of the holdings in other courts (district and circuit) has been that that aspect of Marinello does not apply to the defraud Klein conspiracy.

The Court rejected the argument.  The Court’s reasoning is short so I copy and paste pp. 231-232 (omitting a footnote):

III

     A

            Desu next argues that the two counts in the indictment alleging violations of 18 U.S.C. § 371 fail to state an offense. In those counts, the government alleges that Desu conspired “to defraud the IRS by impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful government functions of the IRS to ascertain, compute, assess, and collect income taxes,” a crime known as a Klein conspiracy. App. 94, 100. Desu claims that [*8] both counts fail to state an offense under Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018). In Marinello, the Supreme Court held that to convict someone of obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue Code under 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a), the government must prove that a ‘“nexus’ [existed] between the defendant’s conduct and a particular administrative proceeding, such as an investigation, an audit, or other targeted administrative action.” Id. at 1109. Desu claims that both counts fail to state an offense because they do not allege that an investigation was pending when he committed the conspiracies as required by Marinello in the separate but similar statute. 

Teacher Certificate Revocation Based on Fraud in Defraud Conspiracy; Wrong (7/29/21)

There are collateral consequences to being convicted of a tax crime (as well as other crimes).  Some of the collateral consequences for tax crimes are covered in Michael Saltzman and Leslie Book, IRS Practice and Procedure (Thomsen Reuters 2015), ¶ 12.06 Collateral Consequences.  (Note, I am the principal author  of Chapter 12, titled Criminal Penalties and the Investigation Function.)  Some of those are civil consequences.

In Certificate Revocation · "Crime of Moral Turpitude" · 18 U.S.C. §371 (Pennsylvania Law Weekly 7/20/21), the former teacher had his teaching certificate revoked after pleading guilty to a tax defraud conspiracy in 18 USC 371.  I don’t have a link to the article, but a Google search indicates that it is behind the Law.com paywall here.

The question addressed was whether the defraud conspiracy was a crime of moral turpitude.  The article says: “it was clear that conspiracy to defraud the United States was a crime of which fraud was an element.” 

As I have noted many times, the defraud conspiracy (commonly called a Klein conspiracy in a tax context) does not require fraud in its traditional meaning; thus, fraud (in its traditional meaning) is not an element of the crime.  Conduct falling far short of fraud is within the scope of the word defraud for the defraud conspiracy.  See  John A. Townsend, Tax Obstruction Crimes: Is Making the IRS's Job Harder Enough, 9 Hous. Bus. & Tax. L.J. 255, 330 ff. (2009), SSRN here.  It is true that at least deceit not involving fraud is required for conviction, but the point is that it is wrong to assume that because defraud is an element, fraud is an element.  It is not.

Accordingly, from the article, and without more, it would appear that the revocation was improper if it was based on a conclusion that the element of the crime was fraud in its traditional sense.  Of course, the Commission had the indictment in which, as usual, the prosecutors probably fluffed to manner and means to include some tax loss, so the intent to cause the tax loss would be fraud.  But, if that were the case, the offense was an offense conspiracy rather than a defraud conspiracy.  And, since this was a tax crime, the Government rarely charges without a tax loss -- which is the tax the defendant intended to evade so that there is a tax loss for sentencing.  Still, my understanding is that this type of consequence should be based on the elements of the crime.  A tax loss is not an element of the defraud conspiracy crime.  Hence, fraud is not an element of the defraud conspiracy.

S.G. Files Brief in Opp to Petition for Certiorari in Flynn (5/19/21; 6/17/21)

I noted previously that a petition for certiorari was filed in United States v. Flynn, 969 F.3d 873 (8th Cir. 2020), cert. docketed, 20-1129 (Feb. 17, 2021) and that the Government was to file an answer on May 19, 2021.  See Fifth Circuit Holds that the Defraud/Klein Conspiracy Does Not Have Pending Proceeding Element; Update on Cert Petition in Related Case (Federal Tax Crimes 5/8/21), here.  The Solicitor General filed the answer today, a Brief in Opposition, here.

Just to review the bidding as of today, the following key documents are on file per the docket entries, here (where the various documents can be reviewed and downloaded).

• The petition was filed 2/11/12.
• An amicus brief in support of the petition was filed by the New York Council of Defense Lawyers on 5/2/21. 
• The S.G. Brief in Opp was filed on 5/19/21.
• Flynn's Reply Brief filed on 6/7/21.  (Added to Blog 6/17/21)

The Brief in Opp is 26 pages long (substantially longer than the Briefs in Opp I drafted while with DOJ Tax Appellate, but word inflation has crept into my writings since then).  The key issue that I think readers of this blog would be most interest is (p. (I), p. 2 of the pdf):

2. Whether a charge of conspiring to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371 is void for vagueness absent a requirement that the government prove a nexus between a defendant’s conduct and a particular administrative proceeding.

This issue is basically the Marinello issue I mentioned in my earlier blog.

Flynn, in the petition for certiorari, stated the issue as follows (p. i, p. 2 of the pdf):

II. Whether the requirement for a nexus between a particular administrative proceeding and a taxpayer’s conduct is necessary to save the constitutionality of a conviction under an 18 U.S.C. § 371 conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (Klein Conspiracy) after this Court’s decision in Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018).

The Government states it arguments on pp. 15-23 (pp. 22-30 of the pdf).  Basically, the arguments are:

Fifth Circuit Holds that the Defraud/Klein Conspiracy Does Not Have Pending Proceeding Element; Update on Cert Petition in Related Case (5/8/21)

In United States v. Herman, 997 F. 3d 251, 273 (5th Cir. 2021), CA5 here & GS here, the Court affirmed the convictions of husband and wife, restaurant owners and operators for the defraud/Klein conspiracy and willfully filing false tax returns. 

The noteworthy holding in the opinion is that the Klein conspiracy in § 371 does not import the holding in Marinello v. United States, 584 U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018), that the tax obstruction crime (§ 7212(a)) requires a nexus to an administrative proceeding.  (See Slip Op. 25-29.) 

As the Fifth Circuit panel notes, its holding is consistent with the two other circuits’ holdings, the only circuit court cases addressing the issue.

One of the other circuit court cases was United States v. Flynn, 969 F.3d 873 (8th Cir. 2020), cert. docketed, 20-1129 (Feb. 17, 2021).  I previously wrote on the petition for cert in Flynn.  See Defendant Petitions for Cert on Relationship of Defraud Conspiracy and Marinello Interpretation of Tax Obstruction (2/22/21), here.  I thought readers might want an update on the status of the pending petition for cert in Flynn.

The Supreme Court docket entries in Flynn, here, indicate that the following key entries:

• The petition was filed 2/11/12, 
• The Government’s response is due 5/19/21 (after some extensions) 
• An amicus brief in support of the petition was filed by the New York Council of Defense Lawyers on 5/2/21.  

Defendant Petitions for Cert on Relationship of Defraud Conspiracy and Marinello Interpretation of Tax Obstruction (2/22/21)

I have previously blogged on the plea and resulting conviction of Scott Flynn for the defraud / Klein conspiracy.  See Eighth Circuit Holds that Marinello Pending Proceeding Nexus in § 7212(a) Does Not Apply to Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 8/17/20), here; and Two Cases Involving Marinello (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/15/19), here.  Flynn has filed a petition for certiorari (S.Ct. pdf here pdf and TN text here) presenting the following issues (Pet. p. 1):

I. Whether the due process clause of the United States Constitution, as discussed in McCarthy v. United States, 394 U.S. 459 (1969) and more recent decisions of this Court, requires discussion in open court of the elements of an 18 U.S.C. § 371 conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (Klein Conspiracy) offense to advise the defendant of the nature of the charges against him before a guilty plea is accepted.

II. Whether the requirement for a nexus between a particular administrative proceeding and a taxpayer's conduct is necessary to save the constitutionality of a conviction under an 18 U.S.C. § 371 conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (Klein Conspiracy) after this Court's decision in Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018).

III. Whether a criminal defendant is entitled to a jury trial to determine the amount of restitution under either the Sixth or Seventh Amendments to the United States Constitution.

All of the issues are important, but only the Supreme Court will determine whether they are “cert-worthy.”  

I address one issue that I have written on before – whether Marinello’s interpretation of the tax obstruction, § 7212(a), offense can or should apply to the defraud / Klein conspiracy?  See e.g., What Are the Implications for Marinello on the Defraud / Klein Conspiracy? (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 3/24/18), here; see also Great Second Circuit Dissent on Potential Overreach in Tax Obstruction (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 2/28/17), here.  Flynn argues that the defraud / Klein conspiracy is unconstitutional and can be saved by importing the Marinello analysis into the defraud / Klein conspiracy.  See pp. 20, here – 30.  I need not go over the nuance of the argument since the petition presents the position well and I have previously addressed the issue in the various Federal Tax Crimes Blog links above.  Here (p. 4), though is the fairly cryptic summary of the argument:

The charging document for the 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Klein Conspiracy) charge used all but identical language to a tax obstruction charge, 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a), that was limited by this Court in Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018). The same nexus limitation should have been applied here or the statute should be declared unconstitutional.

JAT Comment (added 2/22/21 at 9:00pm:

District Court Sustains Tax Convictions but Grants Acquittal on Wire Fraud Convictions Because No Fraud (8/26/20)

In United States v. Barringer (W.D. VA Dkt No. 1:19CR00051 Order Dated 8/21/20), CL here, Barringer “convicted by a jury of three counts of willfully failing to pay over payroll taxes, two counts of wire fraud, and three counts of making false statements to federal agents.”  Broadly speaking, the gravamen of the conduct charged was an attempt to keep a business afloat by not paying over the employee’s withheld tax.  That pattern of behavior is not uncommon.  Also, it appears that Barringer’s conduct was to help her keep a good paying job.  That pattern also is not uncommon.  The interesting twist in this case is the wire fraud counts under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and conviction on those counts.  The district court entered judgment of acquittal on the two wire fraud counts.

The factual background for the wire fraud convictions was Barringer’s effort to withdraw funds from her 401(k) plan to use the funds, perhaps in part, to keep the employer afloat.  Barringer first asked the provider of the account, a financial company, for guidance on withdrawing funds she needed to keep the employer in operation.  The provider said that that was not a permitted reason to withdraw from the account.  Barringer then applied for the withdrawal to prevent foreclosure on her primary residence, which was among the permitted reasons to withdraw.  In fact, though, Barringer was ahead on her residence payments and was not under threat of foreclosure.  The provider made the distribution.  Barringer used some of the money to pay the employer’s creditors without paying to the IRS on the withholding tax obligations and used some for her own purposes.  Then, in an interview with the IRS she repeated the lie as to her reason for withdrawal from the 401(k) account.  These facts are the basis for the wire fraud counts and for one of the false statement counts (17 U.S.C. § 1001).

The Court held that, on the record, the Government did not prove the critical element of fraud.  Although it was clear that Barringer misrepresented her reason for the withdrawal in order to fit one of the permitted reasons for withdrawal, the question was whether she thereby sought to and did commit a fraud against another person.  She was, after all, withdrawing her own money.  Here is what the Court said about that (Slip Op. 9-:

            The defendant’s main challenge is directed towards her wire fraud convictions. I agree that the government failed to prove that the defendant’s deceit deprived another of a property interest. To obtain a conviction for wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, the government must show that the defendant “(1) devised or intended to devise a scheme to defraud and (2) used the mail or wire communications in furtherance of the scheme.” United States v. Wynn, 684 F.3d 473, 477 (4th Cir. 2012). The element “to defraud” has “the common understanding of wronging one in his property rights by dishonest methods or schemes, and usually signify the deprivation of something of value by trick, deceit, chicane, or overreaching.” Carpenter v. United States, 484 U.S. 19, 27 (1987).

            The defendant’s sufficiency challenge is that the government did not present evidence that she deprived, or intended to deprive, another of something of value because the government did not present evidence of who or what might have been deprived of their property interest by her deception and that she believed she was the sole owner of her 401(k) plan assets. * * * *

Eighth Circuit Holds that Marinello Pending Proceeding Nexus in § 7212(a) Does Not Apply to Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (8/17/20)

In United States v. Flynn, 969 F.3d 873 (8th Cir. 2020), here, the Court opens as follows:

Scott Phillip Flynn pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and filing a false tax return. See 18 U.S.C. § 371; 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1). He tried to withdraw his plea before sentencing, but the district court 1  denied his motion and sentenced him to 87 months in prison—60 months for the conspiracy charge and 27 months for the false return—and ordered him to pay roughly $5.4 million in restitution. Flynn appeals, arguing that he should have been allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, his conspiracy conviction is void for vagueness, the restitution order was procedurally improper and clearly erroneous, and the district court wrongly applied an organizer or leader enhancement when it calculated his sentence. We find no error and affirm. 

The issue in the case that I think is interesting is the argument that the defraud / Klein conspiracy charge (18 USC 371) should have the same pending proceeding nexus element for tax obstruction, § 7212(a).  See Marinello v. United States, 584 U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018).  I have written on this issue before.  Basically, the issue is whether, although the defraud / Klein conspiracy statute and the tax obstruction statute are differently worded, because the interpretation of the defraud / Klein conspiracy parallels the tax obstruction statute the elements should be the same.  See What Are the Implications for Marinello on the Defraud / Klein Conspiracy? (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 3/24/18), here.  I have posted subsequent blog entries on that issue as courts have addressed the claim.  The gravamen of the case authority to date is that the tax obstruction pending proceeding nexus element does not apply to the defraud / Klein conspiracy.  The Flynn case so holds.

Flynn made the Marinello argument in the context of attempting to withdraw his guilty plea (see Slip Op. 5-6) and the argument that allegedly missing element made charge void for vagueness (see Slip Op. 8 n. 4).  The Court rejected both arguments.

The briefing in the case is quite good, so I offer here a zip file with the briefs and other submissions relevant to the Marinello issue.

One point, I omitted in my earlier discussion of the issue is the following from my most recent (now discontinued) Federal Tax Crimes Book (p. 123 n. 231, here):

In a prior version of the CTM, DOJ Tax asserted that tax obstruction may be charged where the Klein conspiracy is “unavailable due to insufficient evidence of conspiracy.”  CTM 17.02 (2001 ed.).  The 2008 version of the general subject is in § 17.00 and refers to Directive 129 which superseded Directive 77. The language quoted in the text from the 2001 version incorporating Directive 77 is omitted from the superseding Directive 129. I don't think that omission is a concession of the point, however.

The point is that, at least at one time, DOJ felt that the two crimes substantially overlapped with the critical difference being that the defraud / Klein conspiracy required more than one actor / conspirator.

Houston Attorney Sentenced to 24 Months for Conspiracy and Tax Evasion (8/7/20)

DOJ Tax has this press release:  Houston Attorney Sentenced to Prison for Offshore Tax Evasion Scheme: Conspired to Secretly Bring to the US More Than $18 Million in Untaxed Money Held in Foreign Banks, here.  The key excerpts are:

A Houston, Texas, attorney was sentenced to 24 months in prison for conspiring to defraud the United States and tax evasion, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick for the Southern District of Texas. 

In September 2019, a jury convicted Jack Stephen Pursley, also known as Steve Pursley, of conspiring with a client to repatriate more than $18 million in untaxed income that the client had earned through his company, Southeastern Shipping.  According to the evidence presented at trial, Pursley knew that the client had never paid taxes on these funds so Pursley designed and implemented a scheme to transfer the untaxed funds from Southeastern Shipping’s business bank account, located in the Isle of Man, to the United States.  Pursley helped to conceal the movement of funds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by disguising the transfers as stock purchases in United States corporations owned and controlled by Pursley and his client. 

Pursley received more than $4.8 million and a 25% ownership interest in the co-conspirator’s ongoing business for his role in the fraudulent scheme.  In 2009 and 2010, Pursley evaded the assessment of and failed to pay the taxes he owed on these payments by, among other means, withdrawing the funds as purported non-taxable loans and returns of capital.  Pursley used the money he garnered from the fraudulent scheme for personal investments, and to purchase personal assets, including a vacation home in Vail, Colorado, and property in Houston, Texas. 

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Pursley to serve 2 years of supervised release and to pay approximately $1,788,753 in restitution to the United States. 

Being from Houston and otherwise familiar with the case, I was interested.  I posted on the case.  See particularly, Houston Attorney Convicted of Klein Conspiracy and Tax Evasion (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 9/6/19), here.

 At the sentencing or shortly thereafter the judge unsealed the Government’s sentencing memorandum.  I offer the sentencing memorandum here.  Some key points from the memorandum are:

More on Defraud Conspiracy as Requiring Object to Obtain Money or Property (5/11/20)

On 5/11/20 at 10:00 pm EDT, I revised this post, where appropriate, to use conspiracy lingo -- object rather than intent.  I have made some other, principally editorial changes, as well (principally adding a new JAT Comment #2 and moving the later comments up one number).

I recently posted on the Supreme Court’s opinion in Kelly v. United States, 590 U.S. ___, ___ S.Ct. ___ (5/7/20), here, and potential implications for the defraud/Klein conspiracy.  Supreme Court Reverses Bridgegate Convictions, Holding that Fraud Means Fraud; Implications for Defraud/Klein Conspiracy? (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 5/7/20), here.  Briefly, my concern  expressed in that blog and previously expressed (perhaps ad nauseum) was that the term defraud in the defraud/Klein conspiracy under the conspiracy statute, 18 USC § 371, is interpreted to permit conviction in the absence of an object to commit fraud (meaning obtaining something of value by fraudulent means).  I discuss that anomaly in the criminal law in the blog and in substantially more detail in the article I link in the blog.  Today, I want to follow through that discussion with an arguably related consideration from a nontax case earlier this year.

In United States v. Miller, 953 F.3d 1095 (9th Cir. 2020), here.  To start the discussion, I offer this from the summary preceding the opinion (the footnote indicates that the summary is prepared by the staff and not part of the opinion, but I think it useful for purposes of this blog; bold-face supplied by JAT):

Overruling prior decisions of this court in light of the Supreme Court's intervening decision in Shaw v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 462, 196 L. Ed. 2d 372 (2016), the panel held that wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 requires the intent to deceive and cheat — in other words, to deprive the victim of money or property by means of deception — and that the jury charge instructing that wire fraud requires the intent to "deceive or cheat" was therefore erroneous. The panel nevertheless held that the erroneous instruction was harmless.

The wire fraud statute in relevant part (18 USC § 1343) describes the person criminally liable:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire [etc.]”

As written, the use of "or" seems to be disjunctive but, if the word defraud is interpreted to require an intent to obtain money or property by fraud, the two seem to be parallel (perhaps one or the other redundant).

The issue then was further set up (p. 1100):

At trial, Miller requested a jury instruction stating that, to be guilty of wire fraud, he must have intended to "deceive and cheat" MWRC. The trial court, however, delivered the Ninth Circuit's model jury instruction, which states that wire fraud instead requires only the intent to "deceive or cheat" (emphasis supplied) the victim. As his first issue on this appeal, Miller argues that this jury instruction misstated the law.

The Ninth Circuit (per the opinion drafted by USDJ Jed S. Rakoff (SDNY) sitting by designation, see comment #4 below) states in pertinent part (pp. 1101-1103, footnotes omitted):

Supreme Court Reverses Bridgegate Convictions, Holding that Fraud Means Fraud; Implications for Defraud/Klein Conspiracy? (5/7/20)

In Kelly v. United States, 590 U.S. ___, ___ S.Ct. ___ (5/7/20), here, the court reversed the infamous Bridgegate convictions for “wire fraud, fraud on a federally funded program or entity (the Port Authority), and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes.”  The Court held that “Because the scheme here did not aim to obtain money or property, Baroni and Kelly could not have violated the federal-program fraud or wire fraud laws.” (From the Syllabus.)

This is perhaps not a remarkable holding (although I do remark below).  It was unanimous.  Moreover, federal crimes where fraud is an element of the crime have typically required an object to obtain money or property.  So, I think the holding is consistent with that line of cases, and the unanimous Court in Kelly so holds.

But, as I have noted elsewhere fraud or its parallel defraud in the federal criminal statutes, while normally requiring an object to obtain money or property, does not, as interpreted, so require for the defraud conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. § 371.  See John A. Townsend, Tax Obstruction Crimes: Is Making the IRS's Job Harder Enough, 9 Hous. Bus. & Tax. L.J. 255 (2009), here.  Readers of this blog will know that § 371 defines two crimes – an object conspiracy and a defraud conspiracy.  The object conspiracy requires that the object of the conspiracy be the commission of a crime otherwise described in the law.  (The conspiracies charged in Kelly were object conspiracies, see Slip Op. 7 n. 1 and the case below styled United States v. Baroni, 909 F.3d 550, 556 (3rd Cir. 2018).)  Thus, for example, an object to commit tax evasion is an object conspiracy.

The defraud conspiracy, as interpreted, is more amorphous. The text of of § 371 for the defraud conspiracy is: “If two or more persons conspire * * * to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy * * *.”  Defraud normally is a verb form for fraud (a noun), particularly with respect to the focus to obtain money or property.  For example, the Merriam Webster online dictionary, here, defines “defraud” as (with examples):

transitive verb
: to deprive of something by deception or fraud
// trying to defraud the public
// Investors in the scheme were defrauded of their life savings.

And the synonyms are:

beat, bilk, bleed, cheat, chisel, chouse, con, cozen, diddle, do, do in, euchre, fiddle, fleece, flimflam, gaff, gyp, hose [slang], hustle, mulct, nobble [British slang], pluck, ream, rip off, rook, screw, shake down, short, shortchange, skin, skunk, squeeze, stick, stiff, sting, sucker, swindle, thimblerig, victimize

And the relevant definition of fraud (a noun), here, is:

1a: DECEIT, TRICKERY
specifically : intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right
// was accused of credit card fraud
b: an act of deceiving or misrepresenting : TRICK
// automobile insurance frauds

Fraud and defraud thus have similar connotations with respect to the issue addressed in Kelly–an object to obtain money or property.

Houston Attorney Convicted of Klein Conspiracy and Tax Evasion (9/6/19)

DOJ Tax announced here that Jack Stephen Pursley, also known as Steve Pursley, was convicted of one count of defraud conspiracy, 18 USC § 371 (also called a Klein conspiracy) and three counts of tax evasion, § 7201.  I posted on the original indictment.  See Houston Attorney Charged With Tax Crimes Related to Offshore Accounts (9/21/18), here.

Key excerpts from the Press Release on the conviction are:

According to the evidence presented at trial, Jack Stephen Pursley, also known as Steve Pursley, conspired with a former client to repatriate more than $18 million in untaxed income that the client had earned through his company, Southeastern Shipping. Knowing that his client had never paid taxes on these funds, Pursley designed and implemented a scheme whereby the untaxed funds were transferred from Southeastern Shipping’s business bank account, located in the Isle of Man, to the United States. Pursley helped to conceal the movement of funds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by disguising the transfers as stock purchases in United States corporations owned and controlled by Pursley and his client. 

At trial, the government proved that Pursley received more than $4.8 million and a 25% ownership interest in the co-conspirator’s ongoing business for his role in the fraudulent scheme. For tax years 2009 and 2010, Pursley evaded the assessment of and failed to pay the income taxes he owed on these payments by, among other means, withdrawing the funds as purported non-taxable loans and returns of capital. The government showed at trial that Pursley used the money he garnered from the fraudulent scheme for personal investments, and to purchase assets for himself, including a vacation home in Vail, Colorado and property in Houston, Texas.

The docket with links to many of the key documents is on Court Listener, here.

Another Case Holding that Marinello's Pending or Expected Proceeding Requirement for Tax Obstruction Does Not Apply to the Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (5/2/19)

In United States v. Herman, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70151 (W.D. Tex. No. AU-17-CR-301-XR 4/24/19) [no link available], the court somewhat cryptically rejected the defendant's argument that the pending or expected proceeding reasoning of Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018) on the tax obstruction crime (§ 7212(a)) applied to the defraud / Klein conspiracy under 18 USC § 371(a).  The Court's holding on that issue is:

Defendants argue that Marinello v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1101, 200 L. Ed. 2d 356 (2018) mandates the dismissal of count one. In Marinello, the Supreme Court interpreted 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a) and concluded that "to secure a conviction under the Omnibus Clause [of that statute], the Government must show (among other things) that there is a 'nexus' between the defendant's conduct and a particular administrative proceeding, such as an investigation, an audit, or other targeted administrative action." Id. at 1109. "In addition to satisfying this nexus requirement, the Government must show that the proceeding was pending at the time the defendant engaged in the obstructive conduct or, at the least, was then reasonably foreseeable by the defendant." Id. at 1110. Defendants argue that "it is now clear that with regard to 'obstruction conviction[s], the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.'" Defendants further argue that the Indictment fails to include this essential element. This Court rejects Defendants' argument for the same reasons as stated by the Court in United States v. Flynn, No. CR 16-347 ADM/KMM, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3317, 2019 WL 135701, at *7 (D. Minn. Jan. 8, 2019). The limitations on the substantive offense of 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a) do not apply to Klein conspiracies charged under the general conspiracy statute of 18 U.S.C. § 371. See also United States v. Parlato, No. 15-CR-149-FPG, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33035, 2019 WL 988450, at *2 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 1, 2019) (declining to apply Marinello to a statute the Supreme Court did not consider). The motions are denied (docket nos. 73 and 76).

I previously reported on Flynn: Two Cases Involving Marinello (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/15/19), here.  I also reported on Parlato. District Court Rejects Argument that Marinello Applies to Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (3/7/19), here.

11th Circuit Affirms Convictions of Promoters of Insurance Premium Scam Bullshit Tax Shelter (3/27/19)

In United States v. Donaldson, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 8684 (11th Cir. 2019) (unpublished), here and here, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's convictions of Dionaldson and Crithfield for conspiring to defraud the United States, 18 U.S.C. § 371, and willfully aiding the submission of false and fraudulent income tax returns, 26 U.S.C § 7206(2).  Basically, they sold their clients bullshit tax shelters in the guise of a Business Protection Plan (BPP). Essentially, the customers would pay purported business insurance premiums, purportedly deductible for tax purposes, for a plan that was not insurance but returned most of the "premiums" to the clients, less the promoter's rake off.  I have previously written on the prosecutions and convictions.  Bench Trial Convictions on Offshore Business Insurance Scams (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 7/13/17), here.  That prior blog entry contains much of the detail for better understanding the scam.

The Court of Appeals held:

1. The evidence was sufficient to support the convictions, going through the facts and the elements of the crimes of conviction. The essential holding on appeal was that the BPP was a substantive sham and the defendants were willful in promoting the sham, thus supporting the conviction for the defraud conspiracy (18 USC § 371)  and aiding and assisting (§ 7206(2)).

2.  The District Court did not improperly deny the motion for acquittal or new trial.  The claim asserted on this basis related to Donaldson.  Donaldson claimed that the district court had improperly "persuaded" him not to call a witness, a lawyer who gave an opinion supporting the BPP, who might have supported his reliance on counsel defense.  The actual opinion was in evidence.  The judge simply stated, after admitting the opinion, what the lawyer's testimony would add.  Donaldson's lawyer then made a strategy decision not to call the lawyer as a witness.  No error there.  The Court of Appeals discussion includes this:

Moreover, the district court did not find, as Donaldson suggests, that the coverages offered within the BPP were superfluous for all purposes. Rather, the district court found that the coverages were superfluous for the specific customers who bought them, including one doctor's office that purchased wholly unnecessary insurance for protection against international kidnapping.

3.  The District Court properly rejected the appellants' motion to suppress evidence seized by search warrant.

JAT Comment: All in all, a fairly routine case which is why, I suppose, the opinion is nonprecedential.  However, for those wanting more about the case, please go to the prior blog linked above discussing the bench opinion convicting the defendants/appellants.

Court Affirms Defraud Conspiracy Conviction; Rejects Lesser Included Offense Argument (3/7/19)

In United States v. Bradley, 917 F. 3d 493 (6th Cir. 2019), CA6 here and GS here, the court affirmed Bradley's defraud conspiracy conviction.  Bradley made three arguments on appeal: (i) constructive amendment or variance to the indictment; (ii) improper argument by the prosecutor that misstated the Government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; and (iii) failure to give a lesser included offense instruction.

I will not discuss the first two issues, but those with the time might want to look particularly at the improper argument issue where the Court found the arguments improper but not prejudicial.  The Court's discussion (including quotes from the argument) is on Slip Op. 12-16.

Now, looking at the lesser included offense issue, Bradley was convicted of the defraud conspiracy which, under the conspiracy statute (18 USC 371) is a felony.  Remember that the conspiracy statute has two types of conspiracy -- the offense conspiracy to commit a specific offense otherwise criminalize and the defraud conspiracy (also called Klein conspiracy) to impair or impede the functions of the IRS through fraud or deceit.  Bradley was charged with the felony defraud conspiracy.  He wanted an instruction on the offense conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor offense (§§ 7203 and 7204).  The felony statute says that a conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

The Sixth Circuit stated its lesser included offense requirements as requiring (p. 508):

(1) a proper request is made; (2) the elements of the lesser offense are identical to part of the elements of the greater offense; (3) the evidence would support a conviction on the lesser offense; and (4) the proof on the element or elements differentiating the two crimes is sufficiently disputed so that a jury could consistently acquit on the greater offense and convict on the lesser.

The Court analyzed the 2d requirement (Slip. Op. 17, cleaned up; 917 F3d at 508-509):

The second criterion of the lesser-included offense analysis requires us to determine whether the elements of the lesser offense are identical to part of the elements of the greater offense. Bradley was charged and convicted for conspiring to defraud the United States—the proposed greater offense. The elements of conspiracy to defraud the United States that the district court charged to the jury are: (1) that two or more persons conspired, or agreed, to defraud the United States, or one of its agencies or departments, by dishonest means, (2) that the defendant knowingly and voluntarily joined the conspiracy, and (3) that a member of the conspiracy did one of the overt acts described in the indictment for the purpose of advancing or helping the conspiracy. The elements of the proposed lesser offense of conspiracy to fail to file W-2s would presumably be: (1) an agreement to fail to file W-2s; (2) one or more overt acts in furtherance of that illegal purpose; and (3) the intent to fail to file W-2s. Similarly, the elements of the lesser offense of conspiracy to fail to issue Form 1099s would be (1) an agreement to fail to issue Form 1099s; (2) one or more overt acts in furtherance of that illegal purpose; and (3) the intent to fail to issue Form 1099s.

Ultimately, though, the Court did not resolve the issue on the merits because Bradley had forfeited the argument because he had not properly presented or preserved the issue.

I think that this is a good reminder that when the Government charges a felony conspiracy (I don't recall it charging a misdemeanor conspiracy), counsel should think creatively about a lesser included offense charge that will permit a jury a way to compromise if the binary choice of guilty or not guilty is not palatable to the jury.  Of course, if the jury with only a binary choice would tilt toward not guilty, a defendant would not want the lesser included offense charge.  But, if the jury would tilt toward guilt, the defendant would want the charge to mitigate the damage.  And, reading the jury's mind on that can be vexing.

District Court Rejects Argument that Marinello Applies to Defraud / Klein Conspiracy (3/7/19)

In United States v. Parlato, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33035 (W.D. NY 2019), here, the Court rejected Parato's argument that the Supreme Court's decision in Marinello v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018), limiting tax obstruction (§ 7212(a)) could similarly limit the defraud / Klein conspiracy.  The opinion is short so I do not further attempt to summarize it.  The underlying Magistrate report and recommendation is here.

Prior blog entries on this issue include the following (reverse chronological order):

• Two Cases Involving Marinello (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 1/15/19), here.
• What Are the Implications for Marinello on the Defraud / Klein Conspiracy? (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 3/24/18), here.
• More on the Marinello Transcript of Oral Argument (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 12/9/17), here.
• First Comments on the Marinello Oral Argument Transcript (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 12/6/17), here.

Court Dismisses 7 of 8 Counts Because of a Tolling Agreement Ambiguity (1/17/19)

In United States v. Brattain, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6494 (E.D. Mich. 2019), here, the defendant was charged in the superseding indictment, here, for with 7 counts of aiding and assisting, § 7206(2), and 1 count of the defraud / Klein conspiracy.  The Court dismissed the 7 counts of aiding and assisting because the tolling agreement, drafted by the Government, was ambiguous as to whether it covered aiding and assisting and therefore, since tolling agreements are construed against the drafter, it did not cover aiding and assisting.

The tolling agreement provided in relevant part that (i) the U.S. Attorney was prepared to seek an indictment alleging  "that defendant made or subscribed a false tax return in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206;" and (ii) that Brattain "agree[s] that the running of the statute of limitations applicable to the offenses described above will be tolled ..."

Tax crimes enthusiasts should spot the problem immediately.  The text refers to § 7206(1) (which I refer to as tax perjury) but the code section cited in the tolling agreement is § 7206 without limiting to § 7206(1), the provision for making or subscribing a false return.  The Government indicted for § 7206(2), which is for aiding and assisting of a false return.  That made the tolling agreement ambiguous.  Hence, the tolling agreement did not cover the charges and those counts are dismissed.

For those with access to Court Listener (free), the opinion docket entries are here where the superseding indictment and the opinion may be downloaded.

JAT Comments:

1.  The tolling agreement also covered allegations of FBAR violations -- failure "to report foreign bank and financial accounts in violation of Title 31, United States Code, Sections 5314 and 5322."  The superseding indictment does not cover those charges.  There is no indication why those charges are omitted.

2.  The dismissal of the 7 aiding and assisting counts leaves the sole count of the defraud / Klein conspiracy.

3.  The allegations in the complaint generally and particularly in the defraud / Klein conspiracy count seem to me to be fairly skinny.  There are no allegations about who the defendant is or as to venue.  More importantly, the overt acts are presented crisply, and included the filing of original and amended returns for some years.  In a conspiracy count, particularly for a defraud / Klein conspiracy, the allegations will give paint a detailed and damning picture of the overall conspiracy.  The picture is presented in a statement of the manner and means and the overt acts.  In the Brattain superseding indictment the indictment alleges the overt acts without manner and means allegations.

4.  If Brattain is convicted on the conspiracy count, his maximum sentencing exposure is 5 years which will likely be more than ample to cover his Guidelines sentence.  In this regard, the dismissed counts are likely related to the conspiracy and would be relevant conduct, the tax loss from which would be included in Brattain's guidelines calculations.  Hence, his Guidelines sentencing range would be the same as if he were convicted of all relevant conduct crimes (including the dismissed counts, counts beyond the statute of limitations).  The dismissal of the 7 counts will only help if the sentencing judge considers that dismissal favorably to the defendant in a Booker variance.

Two Cases Involving Marinello (1/15/19)

I report here on two Marinello related developments.

1.  In United States v. Adams (D. D.C. No. 15-44 (JEB) Dkt. 94), here, the district court vacated Adams' (called Heru-Bey in the opinion) conviction for tax obstruction, § 7212(a).  The case was at the district court level because the Court of Appeals remanded the case sua sponte after the Government conceded that "the jury instructions — which did not contain the nexus requirement or detail the nature of the requisite IRS proceeding — were error, and that error was plain at the time of appellate consideration.” (Cleaned up.)  In its opinion, the district court (Judge Boasberg) found that there was there was error, the error was plain, the error affected Adams substantial rights, and Adams had been prejudiced.  The Court accordingly vacated the conviction and permitted "the Government to retry the case if it so elects."

Some comments:

a.  Somewhat echoing Judge Kozinski's analysis in United States v. Caldwell, 989 F.2d 1056 (9th Cir. 1993) (answering no to the question "whether conspiring to make the government's job harder is, without more, a federal crime"?), it reasons that the Government's claim for nexus was overbroad and said:

Again, Marinello does not countenance such a broad understanding of § 7212. See 138 S. Ct. at 1107. The Court there specifically rejected as overbroad the argument the Government now presses — namely, it reasoned that § 7212 is “not . . . a ‘catchall’ for every violation that interferes with what the Government describes as the ‘continuous, ubiquitous, and universally known’ administration of the Internal Revenue Code.” Id. (citation omitted).

b.  The Court also poked the Government because it has declined a special instruction that might have solved the issue:

The Court notes, finally, that the Government declined a special unanimity instruction at trial. See 5 Tr. at 84. That is, it did not ask that the jury, to find Defendant guilty, be instructed that it must be unanimous as to which one or more of the Government’s three theories of obstruction was the basis. As a result, even were one of these theories valid, there would be no way for this Court to know that the jury meant to convict on that one and not the invalid others.

2.  In United States v. Flynn,  (D. Minn. 2018 No. 16-347 ADM/KMM), here, the Court denied Flynn's motion to withdraw his guilty plea to a defraud/Klein conspiracy count and a tax perjury count.  Among Flynn's arguments was that the Second Superseding Indictment to which he pled did not properly state a conspiracy to defraud because of the decision in Marinello v. United States, __ U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 1101 (2018).  The following is the pertinent portion of the opinion:

Eleventh Circuit Affirms Klein Conspiracy and Tax Perjury Convictions Mostly on Harmless Error But Raising Interesting Tax Crimes Issues (11/5/18)

In United States v. Garcia, ___ F.3d ___, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 29554 (11th Cir. 2018), here, the indictment charged the defendant and her late husband (who died before trial) of (i) one count of conspiracy (both offense conspiracy and defraud / Klein conspiracy) and (ii) three counts of tax perjury (§ 7206(1).  Garcia was convicted on all counts.

The principal issue in the appeal was whether Garcia's and her counsel's absence from the trial for three to ten minutes in a trial lasting 49 hours violated her constitutional rights.  That is an interesting discussion but not relevant or only tangentially so to federal tax crimes.  The essence of the court's holding was that, although violating her rights, the error was not prejudicial to her.  One of the factors that the court discussed that made the error not prejudicial is, however, worth noting (cleaned up):

Finally, the jury got to consider the testimony of the defendant who vigorously denied knowingly defrauding the United States. A defendant's testimony is substantive evidence that a jury may -- and indeed in this case did consider and reject. A statement by a defendant, if disbelieved by the jury, may be considered as substantive evidence of the defendant's guilt. As the Supreme Court has explained, a defendant who chooses to take the stand runs "the risk that in so doing he will bolster the Government case enough for it to support a verdict of guilty." McGautha v. California, 402 U.S. 183, 215 (1971) [subsequent case history omitted]  An explanation or denial offered by a defendant at trial that the jury finds implausible or false may form a sufficient basis to allow the jury to find that the defendant had the requisite guilty knowledge. Garcia's decision to testify at trial thus, ironically, added further weight to the prosecution's case.

Focusing on the defraud / Klein conspiracy, often formulated in jury instructions as a conspiracy to impair, obstruct and defeat the lawful function of the IRS, the court instructed that the conspiracy was "attempting to impair, obstruct and defeat the lawful function of the IRS." (emphasis supplied.)  Garcia complained, and the court agreed, that the addition was error and the parties agreed that the addition was a constructive amendment of the indictment.  The court affirmed the conviction because she could not show plain error in the constructive amendment.  None of the trial focused on any attempt, with this being injected for the first time in the instructions.  Further, the conspiracy charge was for both offense conspiracy and defraud / Klein conspiracy.  She was convicted of the offenses that were the object of the offense conspiracy, and hence the error was harmless:  "It is, therefore, remote that the verdict rendered on Count One was somehow based on an attempt to defraud rather than on the actual commission of the substantive crimes. "  [JAT Note; that is a bit fuzzy, but the overall point is clear enough.]

Garcia made another claim about the defraud / Klein conspiracy -- she urged that the trial court did not instruct on it.  I am not sure from the opinion what this claim was, since, as noted in the preceding paragraph, a variation of the defraud / Klein conspiracy, albeit erroneous, was given.  But the Court held that her substantial rights were not affected, saying:

It is abundantly clear that the primary issue contested at trial was whether the defendant knowingly and willfully participated in the tax conspiracy. We repeat that the jury ultimately convicted Garcia on three substantive tax charges, which were included as objects of Count One.

On the Klein/Defraud Conspiracy Used by Special Counsel Against Russian Targets; A Tool for Use Against Trump? (10/9/18)

In my federal tax crimes practice and writing I have often lamented the potential sweeping scope of what is called the "Klein conspiracy," which is the defraud conspiracy under 18 USC § 371.  There are two types of conspiracy in the statute -- (i) a conspiracy to commit an offense otherwise prescribed by statute, such as a conspiracy to commit tax evasion as defined in § 7201 (called an offense conspiracy) and (ii) a conspiracy to defraud the U.S., worded variously but generally stated as a conspiracy to impair or impede the lawful functions of a U.S. agency.  The second, the defraud conspiracy, is commonly called a Klein conspiracy named for a leading defraud conspiracy case.  The Klein conspiracy does not require a separate offense as the object of the conspiracy; it simply requires that two or more persons conspire together simply to impair or impede the Government agency.  The Klein conspiracy is frequently used for larger tax crimes where the alleged object is to impair or impede the IRS, but can be used in other agency settings as well.  (Klein itself was a tax case.)

A good general article on the potential dangers of the Klein conspiracy is here:  Eric Felten, A Conspiracy So Vast . . .: But where’s the crime? (The Weekly Standard 10/9/18), here.  I am quoted in the article because I have written, copiously about my concerns about the potential breadth of the Klein conspiracy.  (See links to the principal writings collected at the end of this blog entry.) Felten's article does not get into the twists and turns explored in my thrashings on the issue, but does provide a good summary overview for knowledgeable reader not otherwise steeped in the details of the law of conspiracy theories.  The particular interest of the article is the deployment of the Klein conspiracy by the special counsel in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Here are some quotes from the article:

Dreeben argued that the United States needs only “to prove a conspiracy to defraud the United States.” But “we do not need to prove a criminal violation of the underlying statute,” he told the judge. In other words, the prosecution is claiming that a conspiracy to do “x” can be criminal even if “x” is not itself a criminal act. This may sound strange, but it’s not a mistake. Pressed by Judge Dabney Friedrich, the deputy solicitor general restated it: “There’s a legion of cases,” Dreeben said, that “have specifically said you don’t need to have an underlying illegality in a conspiracy to defraud.” 

He’s right. Conspiracy law is notoriously elastic. Even so, a prosecutor would rather have conspirators dead to rights on a clear, willful violation of a law than have to establish that colluding to do something not proved to be a crime is nonetheless a crime in and of itself. The latter sort of scenario is why you might need a deputy solicitor general on your team. 

The specific acts Concord is alleged to have engaged in—paying Russians to write social media posts about American politics—aren’t necessarily illegal. Such activities may violate the spirit of U.S. election law and the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but they don’t necessarily fit the elements of any crime on the books. That’s where the conspiracy charge comes in handy. Concord’s lawyers say their client has been charged “for a contrived crime not specifically defined in any statute, without notice and under a standard known only to the special counsel.” 

Yes, and so what? responds the special counsel’s office. Quoting case law, Mueller’s team asserts, “The [conspiracy to] defraud clause does not depend on allegations of other offenses.” And because of that, “even otherwise ‘lawful activity may furnish the basis for a conviction under [Section] 371’ ”—that is, the section of federal law dealing with criminal conspiracies. 

* * * * 

How did we get to a place where agreeing with someone to do something otherwise legal can be prosecuted as a criminal conspiracy? And is Concord Management likely to have any luck challenging the constitutionality of such a law?