“When I was a federal prosecutor, I did a lot of work for the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, the FBI. When we had a target, a lot of times they never
knew that they were a target. In fact, that was the best, when they didn’t
know that we were investigating them for doing whatever they were doing. It
was typically at the end of our investigation, when we were ready to
charge, that we would make an attempt to contact them.
So, if you are being contacted by the FBI, don’t assume that this case is
just starting or this just kind of come across somebody’s desk and they’re
just calling you up to shake the tree and see what might fall. They are
most likely ready to indict. Maybe they’ve already started presenting
testimony to a grand jury. Maybe they have a prosecutor lined up who is
kind of feeding them questions to help their case, to help them build a
case and paint you into a corner.
If you’re contacted by a member of the FBI, or any sort of federal agency
or state agency, you need to be calling an attorney ASAP. The FBI or those
agencies are not going to think, oh, he or she is guilty because they are
contacting an attorney. They’re actually going to think you’re pretty darn
smart.
When I was a prosecutor, when we would reach out to somebody and
immediately get a phone call back from an attorney, I knew this person was
a player. I knew that they knew what they were doing and would proceed
accordingly. If people would come to us and just walk in blind and step
into an FBI interview room, an interview room looks just like a little
conference room, but it’s mic’d, there are video cameras, and you have
trained advocates, people that are trained to interrogate you without you
even knowing it. People that are trained to get information out of you or
paint you into the corner that they want you to be in. If you don’t have
somebody in the room with you or you don’t have somebody advising you what
to do, you can be in a lot of trouble.”
From experience, our Denver Criminal Defense Attorney at The Law Office of Douglas Richards, is ready to assist with your case after you have been contacted by an agency like the FBI.