What to Do if You Receive a Target Letter From the US Attorney

A target letter tells you that a federal grand jury is investigating and that the government considers you a putative defendant. It is not a charge. It is notice, and notice is worth something: most people learn they were investigated when agents arrive with an arrest warrant, at which point the decisions have already been made.

The steps below are sequenced because order matters. What you do in the first hours determines what remains available in the following weeks. The single most consequential thing to understand at the outset is that everything you say and everything you touch from this point forward is potentially evidence, including conduct that has nothing to do with the underlying allegation.

Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. has been practicing since 1997, and Mr. Sris is admitted in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York. To discuss a target letter, request a consultation at (888) 437-7747.

Step One: Say Nothing to Anyone in the Government

The instinct after reading a target letter is to explain. It is a reasonable human response and it is the most reliable way to make a survivable situation worse. Do not call the prosecutor. Do not call the case agent. Do not answer questions if agents appear at your door or your workplace, and do not agree to a quick conversation to clear things up.

There are two distinct risks. The first is evidentiary: an explanation can confirm facts the government could not otherwise prove, such as your knowledge of a transaction, your role in a decision, or your presence at an event. Those are frequently the exact elements a prosecutor is missing.

The second risk is independent. A false or misleading statement to a federal agent is a separate offense under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and can be charged even where the underlying investigation ends without charges. People misremember dates, understate involvement out of embarrassment, or guess at answers they do not know. Any of those can become a count.

Declining to answer is not evidence of guilt and cannot be used to suggest it. Saying that you want to speak with a lawyer before answering questions is a complete and appropriate response, and it should be said politely and then maintained.

Step Two: Preserve Everything

Do not delete a message, clear a phone, empty a mailbox, shred a document, wipe a drive, or ask anyone else to. Destroying or altering material after learning of an investigation creates obstruction exposure that is separate from, and frequently easier for the government to prove than, the conduct originally under examination.

The duty runs in the opposite direction. Suspend any automatic deletion you control, including message auto-purge settings, email retention rules, and backup rotation. Where your employer holds relevant records, counsel should send a preservation request promptly, because ordinary business retention schedules will otherwise remove material that may help you.

Preservation extends to things people forget. Calendars, travel and expense records, access and badge logs, text and messaging applications, cloud accounts, financial statements, contracts and drafts, and correspondence with third parties can all matter. So can the metadata around them, which is why the correct instruction is to leave things alone rather than to organize them.

Where devices or accounts are shared with family or colleagues, tell counsel rather than acting on your own. A well-meaning attempt to separate personal from work material can look very different in a later account.

Step Three: Do Not Contact Other People Involved

Calling a colleague, a business partner, an employee, a co-signer, or a family member to compare recollections is natural and dangerous. It can be characterized as obstruction or witness tampering, and either carries its own serious exposure.

Assume that at least one person connected to the matter has already spoken with the government. Cooperating witnesses are frequently instructed to report contact, and some record it. A call intended to establish the truth can become the strongest count in an indictment.

This does not mean cutting off your life. It means routing decisions about who to speak with, and what can safely be said, through counsel before acting. That includes what to tell a spouse, an employer, or a business partner who has independent reasons to need to know.

Step Four: Read the Letter Closely With Counsel

Target letters vary. Most identify the investigating authority and, in general terms, the statutes under examination. Most advise that you are a target of a grand jury investigation and note the right to remain silent and the right to counsel. Many invite testimony or contact, sometimes with a date. Some enclose or reference a subpoena.

What the letter does not say is usually more important than what it does. It will not tell you what the government believes you did, who has spoken to it, what documents it holds, or how close it is to a decision. Reading confidence or doom into the phrasing is a mistake in both directions.

What counsel takes from the letter is a starting map: which statutes are in play and therefore which elements matter, which agency is involved and therefore what investigative tools have likely been used, and whether a deadline exists. That map determines the order of everything that follows.

Step Five: Protect Your Job, Assets, and Clearance

The criminal exposure is rarely the only exposure, and for many people it is not the most immediate. Employers frequently open internal investigations on learning of a federal inquiry. Statements made to an internal investigator are generally not privileged as to the employee, and companies routinely share the results with the government. An interview with your own employer is not a safe place to explain.

Security clearance review runs on its own timetable under its own standards and can be triggered by an investigation alone. Professional licensing boards operate independently. Contractors face suspension and debarment processes that can move faster than a criminal case.

Assets can be affected without warning. Federal seizure authority can reach accounts and property alleged to be connected to proceeds, and civil forfeiture proceedings under 18 U.S.C. § 983 run on strict statutory deadlines where a missed filing forfeits the claim. A frozen account is an emergency with its own clock, separate from the criminal matter.

These tracks interact, and information moves between them. Sequencing decisions across them is part of the representation rather than a separate errand.

Step Six: Let Counsel Make the Contact

There is usually a conversation to be had with the government, and it should be had by a lawyer. Counsel can confirm your status, ask about the scope of the investigation, learn whether a deadline is real, request extensions, and establish a channel, all without the risk that attaches when the client speaks.

That contact also changes the posture. A prosecutor dealing with counsel knows the matter will be litigated properly, that further attempts to interview you directly are off the table, and that any proposal will be evaluated rather than accepted out of fear.

It is worth being realistic about what the conversation produces. Prosecutors are not obliged to explain their case, and early disclosure is usually limited. The value is in confirming the shape of the matter and in preserving the ability to respond in an orderly way.

Step Seven: Decide What, if Anything, to Present

Once the posture is established and the facts have been developed independently, a genuine decision arises. The options run from doing nothing while the investigation proceeds, to submitting a written presentation identifying problems with the contemplated charges, to seeking a meeting, to negotiating the terms of an interview under a proffer agreement.

Each carries a cost. A written submission reveals part of the defense before trial and cannot be withdrawn. A proffer places the client in a room answering questions, under an agreement whose protections are narrower than most people assume, particularly as to derivative use of what is said. A meeting invites the government to test the account.

Doing nothing is also a strategy, and sometimes the right one. Where the government has a weak theory, where the elements cannot be proven from what exists, or where any presentation would supply what is missing, silence preserves more than it costs.

This decision should be made after the facts are known rather than in the first week, which is another reason the earlier steps matter. They buy the time in which a real decision can be made.

What Happens if You Do Nothing at All

The grand jury continues. Evidence continues to be gathered, other people continue to be interviewed, and at some point a charging decision is made without your participation. Some investigations end quietly, and a target never hears anything further. Others produce an indictment, and the first notice is an arrest or a summons.

The practical cost of inaction is not that ignoring a letter causes charges. It is that the period in which records could have been preserved, witnesses located, and a factual account developed passes, and the defense begins from a position that has already lost ground.

There is a second cost that is easy to miss. If an indictment does follow, the case enters a court schedule immediately, and in a district such as the Eastern District of Virginia that schedule is compressed. The Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161, sets a 70-day period within which trial must ordinarily begin after indictment or initial appearance, whichever is later, subject to excludable periods and to continuances granted on findings. Work that could have been done unhurried during the investigation then has to be done inside that window, alongside discovery review and motions.

The third cost is the release question. A defendant who is indicted without warning is arrested without warning, and the detention hearing follows within days under the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142. A release plan needs a third-party custodian, documented residence and employment, and travel documents accounted for. A person who knew an investigation was underway and prepared for that possibility is in a materially different position at that hearing than one who did not.

Errors That Recur

Explaining to agents without counsel. Deleting messages or documents. Calling other witnesses. Signing anything the government presents without review. Telling an employer more than necessary in an internal interview. Assuming a spouse, colleague, or family member cannot be compelled to testify about a conversation. Retaining a lawyer who does not practice in federal court. Waiting because no deadline was stated.

Each of these is understandable and each has converted a defensible position into a worse one. None of them requires bad intent, which is why the safest posture is to make no unilateral decisions in the first days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a target letter mean I am going to be charged?

No. It means the government has substantial evidence linking you to conduct it is investigating and considers you a putative defendant. Status can change, and investigations do end without charges. It should be treated as a serious notice rather than a prediction. No lawyer can promise a particular outcome, and any confident forecast about how a specific investigation will end should be treated with caution.

Should I hire a lawyer if I have not been charged?

The pre-indictment period is generally when counsel has the most room to affect a matter, because the government has not yet committed to a charging theory and evidence can still be preserved. Waiting until charges are filed means beginning after the decisions have been made. Appointed counsel is normally available only after a charge, so pre-indictment representation is retained.

Can I tell my employer?

Discuss it with counsel before you do. Employers frequently open internal investigations, statements to an internal investigator are generally not privileged as to the employee, and companies often share findings with the government. There may also be a contractual or policy obligation to report, and there may be clearance reporting requirements. What to say and when is a decision with consequences in several directions at once.

What if agents show up at my house?

You are not required to answer questions. Ask whether they have a warrant. If they do, do not interfere with its execution, but do not consent to a search beyond what the warrant authorizes and do not answer questions about the material. Say clearly that you want to speak with a lawyer before answering anything, then stop talking and contact counsel.

Is it obstruction to delete my own messages?

Deleting messages after learning of an investigation can support an obstruction charge, and prosecutors treat post-notice deletion as evidence of consciousness of guilt regardless of what the messages contained. It is often easier to prove than the underlying allegation. Preserve everything, including automatic deletion settings you control, and let counsel handle any question about what is relevant.

Can I testify before the grand jury to clear my name?

A target who testifies appears without counsel in the room, faces questioning without cross-examination, and creates a permanent transcript. Counsel may wait outside to be consulted, but the proceeding is not adversarial and there is no right to present a defense case. That invitation is rarely accepted, and never without careful analysis of exposure and alternatives.

How long will this take?

There is no fixed period. Federal investigations run from weeks to years, and target letters do not indicate how close a decision is. Some carry deadlines for contacting the prosecuting authority, and those should be treated as real. The practical answer is that the useful window is now, because it closes without notice.

What if my accounts have been frozen?

A seizure affecting bank accounts or property is a separate proceeding with its own strict deadlines. Civil forfeiture under 18 U.S.C. § 983 operates on statutory timeframes where a missed filing forfeits the claim entirely, independent of the criminal matter. It needs immediate attention alongside the criminal exposure rather than after it.

Working With Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C.

The order of the first steps is what preserves options later: no contact with the government except through counsel, no deletion of anything, no calls to other participants, and immediate preservation reaching any employer or third party holding records. Only after that does the question of what to present become a real decision rather than a reaction.

Mr. Sris, Owner and Founder of Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C., is a former prosecutor and is admitted in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York. The firm has been practicing since 1997. Mr. Sris and the firm’s Of Counsel attorneys handle criminal defense matters across those jurisdictions, which matters in federal practice because a single investigation frequently reaches conduct, witnesses, and records in more than one state. Mr. Sris brings a background in accounting and information systems from George Mason University, applied to complex financial and technology-related cases.

The firm serves Northern Virginia from 1655 Fort Myer Dr, Suite 700, Room 719, Arlington, VA 22209 and central Virginia from 7400 Beaufont Springs Drive, Suite 300, Room 395, Richmond, VA 23225. By appointment. Call (888) 437-7747 to schedule. Request a consultation. Reach our location at (888) 437-7747.

Related pages

• Federal target letter lawyer
• Subject vs target vs witness in a federal investigation
• FBI agents came to my house: what should I do
• Pre-indictment federal defense lawyer
• How to get a federal case declined before indictment

This page provides general information about federal target letters and pre-indictment procedure and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Case results depend on a variety of factors unique to each case. Results may vary.

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