What to Expect From A DC Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Trial

In addition to being a very serious charge with severe penalties, Federal mail and wire fraud charges can also carry media interest and therefore put defendants out into the public eye. With this in mind, the following is information on what you should expect from a federal mail and wire fraud trial in Washington, DC and how an attorney can help you prepare.

To learn more about these types of charges or to begin building a defense, call and schedule a consultation with a DC federal mail and wire fraud lawyer today.

What Kind of Publicity Can Someone Face Mail or Wire Fraud Charges Expect?

Some cases are going to have a lot more publicity than others. If it involves a very large scheme or particularly noteworthy scheme, a famous victim, or famous defendants, then there is going to be a lot of publicity. Additionally, if it is any kind of public corruption, you can expect to see that kind of case garnering a lot of publicity.

What the individual should be aware of regarding this publicity is that they should not make any statements to the media or anyone else without first clearing it with their attorney and in almost every situation, the attorney is going to tell them it’s a bad idea. The attorney should be the one speaking on the defendant’s behalf because anything an individual says to the media or anyone else can be used against them. Anything that the attorney says is not going to be directly attributed to the individual who is being targeted. So an individual should know that in many cases there may be media attention at least initially and that they should absolutely talk to an attorney before they agree to talk to anyone in the media.

How Do DC Courts Treat These Types of Cases?

The DC Federal Court treats mail or wire fraud cases very seriously because fraud cases very often involves large amounts of money, vulnerable victims, or federal agencies as the targets. The federal courts and the federal prosecutors treat these as serious as they can.

With that said, most violent offenses are prosecuted in state courts. There are some violent offenses that are prosecuted in federal courts but the vast majority of robberies, assaults, murders, rapes, and things like that don’t invoke federal jurisdiction and so are not prosecuted in federal courts. Thus, it is difficult to make an easy comparison of how these purely monetary crimes are treated as compared to violent crimes.

What can be noted, however, is that the federal sentencing guidelines, upon which the courts rely when deciding what the appropriate punishment is, can be extremely severe based upon a number of factors including:

• The number of victims
• The amount of money involved
• And the number of people who are involved in the fraud

Although it may be hard to compare federal cases to state cases, generally federal crimes are treated very seriously, prosecuted very stringently, and are punished very strongly by the federal courts.

How Can My Attorney Prepare Me For a Federal Mail and Wire Fraud Trial?

Most cases don’t actually proceed to trial for various reasons but in nearly every case an experienced defense attorney is going to prepare the case as if it were going to trial. They are going to do everything they can to build the best defense, because even if the case doesn’t go to trial it is very likely going to be because of all those efforts made by the defense attorney.

In any case, the defense attorney will make sure the client is actively engaged in the entire process of investigation while we are investigating, while we are strategizing, while we are analyzing, and while we are deciding the best course of action for their defense. We are going to want our client actively engaged in that and we are going to make sure that we have all the information that we possibly need, follow-up on every lead, and make sure that our client has all of the available information to make an informed decision.