Purpose of this post is to review the indictment data and attempt to educate.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FIRST (in an over-simplified way)...
When someone breaks a law, that is a criminal act. States have criminal laws that usually cover things that are confined within the state (ie one person killing another). When criminal acts/actors cross state lines, then the federal government's criminal laws are in play. That criminal act has been done against the people of that jurisdiction, not just the stated victim. In essence, when someone is robbed, we all are wronged. Because we are a system where your innocence is presumed, the government, on behalf of the wronged People at large, must prove that the bad actor committed the bad act in court, with evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt. The entity that is deputized to represent the government in the criminal prosecution, is the prosecutor. At the federal level, you have the United State Attorney General. At the state level, you have the State Attorney General. At the county level, you have the District Attorney. At the city level, you have the City Prosecutor. Sometimes, in special circumstances, where there is an appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest, the DA can call on the AG to prosecute a state crime. At the federal level, when there might be this special circumstance, there is no one outside of the USAG to call on, so the USAG has the power to deputize a special prosecutor who is then given the powers of the prosecutorial agency for this specialized case.
OK, so... Once an alleged crime happens, the policing agency in that jurisdiction (city police department, county sheriff, federal agent of the FBI) will investigate and write a report. They bring the report to the prosecuting agency who then decides if they want to pursue a criminal action against the alleged bad actor. Statutes of limitation limit prosecutorial agencies from prosecuting older crimes, so as to incentivize policing agencies to act efficiently. This also ensures a more fair prosecution of the alleged wrongdoer who might not remember older events. Once the prosecutor decides that a crime has been committed, they convene the grand jury. The prosecutor then presents a portion of the evidence they have of that crime to the grand jury, and the grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to merely charge the bad actor with the crime. This is done because we don't want rogue prosecutors dragging people needlessly through the pain and suffering of a long criminal trial without some form of evidence. Once the grand jury decides in favor of the prosecutor, a formal criminal charge is brought before the judge. This formal criminal charge is called an indictment and it notifies the bad actor of the potential crime that the prosecutor will be prosecuting him/her on. This stops the statute of limitations clock, as well, because prosecution has commenced. Sometimes, indictments are sealed. Sealed indictments keep the name of the defendant bad actor secret from the public and many times, the potential bad actor. This is allowed so that prosecutors may gather more evidence of the current crime charged, other crimes that the bad actor has committed, or other crimes that the bad actor's partners have committed. Prosecutors do not want to tip off the bad actors because then the bad actors might destroy evidence before it is collected. An indictment is then unsealed by the judge once the secrecy is no longer needed (ie bad actor now knows because he was arrested, or even though bad actor has known, the investigation into his partners is now complete).
Everything that happens in a specific court on a specific day is public knowledge, unless it is confidential/sealed. All scheduled motions/hearings/trials/etc. for a given court, on a given date, appear on the public docket/calendar, even confidential/sealed motions (which appear as "SEALED"). The database for dockets, federally, is PACER. It can be found at PACER DATABASE.
OK, now that we are all on the same page, let's get to my "lawerly" analysis.
We have been seeing/hearing all these different numbers about "Sealed Indictments" and the number being up to like 4000+ now. The problem with these numbers is that we do not know for sure if they are specifically indictments. I get that they say SEALED and that you search "newly filed," but this might not represent indictments ONLY. An indictment is a type of motion. Motions must be filed with the court. For example, a new sealed search warrant on an old, currently sealed case might be picked up by PACER as "newly filed." People who do not work with dockets that specifically have sealed indictments, might not understand that not every single sealed motion, newly filed with the court, is going to be a sealed indictment. That is the whole point of them being sealed, so information remains confidential.
When cases are filed with the Clerk of the Court, they are given case numbers. These numbers generally follow a very complex pattern that I believe I have cracked over my many years of practice. They are sequential ;) . So, even in the SEALED cases, they need SOME way of tracking them. If you look on a docket with sealed cases, you'll see it will go like 17-456, 17-457, 17-458, 17-459. These are probably newly filed CASES/indictments. But then, all of a sudden, the docket will list 17-234 on the same date as the above listed cases. This is probably a newly filed MOTION. Once again, the sealings are meant to be/remain confidential, so it is not supposed to be easy to figure out. However, the court DOES need to have a system to track all of the cases. Methinks the 4000+ number is inflated. However, what we CAN do, is look at the same database, same search terms, same court across several years and compare the activity levels. The higher activity levels would tend to indicate higher levels of indictments, but by what percent, it is difficult to say.
11/1 - 11/27 DC District new filings
2017: 93 total / 69 sealed
2016: 69 total / 39 sealed
2015: 109 total / 68 sealed
2014: 76 total / 50 sealed
ANALYSIS: DC is all over the place
11/1 - 11/27
Los Angeles New filings
2017: 401 total / 330 sealed
2016: 299 total / 280 sealed
2015: 332 total / 312 sealed
ANALYSIS: Fractional uptick in activity, could represent individual bad actors rather than large, conspiratorial organizations.
11/1 - 11/27 E. VA District New Filings
except, this time, I will work backwards for dramatic effect...
2015: 8 total / 6 sealed
2016: 30 total / 12 sealed
2017: 238 total / 92 sealed
ANALYSIS: Nothing to see here... Move along people
So, what is happening here? Well, even though DC people work in DC, many of them live in VA.
This is an extraordinary uptick. There are several extraordinary things happening right now, including Mueller and MS-13 crackdown. If this were related to Russia, the numbers wouldn't be so large. I mean how many people were really complicit with the whole Russian thing? Did Putin get 200 people on Trump's team to agree to work with him? Do they all live in VA? OR is the swamp being drained? Do many of the lobbyists live in VA? What about MS-13? One of their central hubs is in VA. Even though all gangs are involved with human trafficking, what is so special about MS-13? Ah yes, they specialize in not only minors, but young minors. They also worship Satan and are involved with human sacrifice.
So, that's it for now...
If you have any questions, feel free to tag me, so I am notified. I will try and answer as best I can, without doxxing myself too much.
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Blacksmith21 ago
Thanks @lawer4justice. I've hoping someone w PACER access would assemble a historical comparison. As I mentioned in another post, MS13 is huge in NoVA and MD. I've never heard of MS13 activities of any significance in DC proper.
You also noted the large amount of VA-related sealed indictments. It is worth noting that DC's daytime population swells from about 700k to around 1.5MM. Those are all workers who do not live in DC.
Does the VA E court also cover MD suburbs?