Info about "Sealed Indictments" (QRV)

submitted ago by 2854463?

As a lawfag and advisor to law enforcement, here is something everyone should consider:

  1. The long list of sealed case files are not necessarily indictments.

  2. Most are, in fact, probably search warrants.

  3. Search warrants generally must be served on the person being searched (and/or suspect) at the time the search is conducted.

  4. HOWEVER, for electronic surveillance (wiretaps, stingray and GPS trackers, email/text/browsing histories) and on RARE OCCASIONS actual physical searches may be conducted surreptitiously, keeping the person/suspect unaware of the search, if the government petitions for such based on good cause to believe that either evidence will be destroyed or the suspect will abscond from prosecution.

  5. The secrecy is time-limited, but the government can continue to maintain those items under seal by renewing the petitions until the court determines that the items should be un-sealed or the government determines that the secrecy should be ended.

So:

A. Are there 60k indictments? Probably not, and there's no way to tell. It's extremely likely that there are significantly more than 1,000, though. However, there is a HUGE number of search warrants. Hmmmm...

B. So, what does the publicly known information tell us? Well, correlate the locations of the cases with the statutes related to the sealed cases. That should tell you A LOT.

Have a nice day.

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

15047177? ago

Don't forget each indictment can contain up to 93 individuals.

15047342? ago

Indictments can definitely cover multiple people.

Disagree on the 93 limit. I assume that's the limit to the number of people/organizations that can go into the automated documents, is that what you're saying? If there's more than 93, you just have serialized filings in the same case file, i.e. "Indictment 1 of 3, Indictment 2 of 3", etc. I do not know of any limit to the number of people.

That being said, it's extremely rare to do large numbers in any criminal case - from the prosecution standpoint, there's too much room for fuckery during the case with that many defendants involved.