The Second Circuit recently issued a decision that confirms that even after New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence may not possess...

I. Introduction In United States v. Perez, the Second Circuit (Robinson, Peréz, and Nathan) affirmed the conviction of Steven Perez, a.k.a. “Lucha El,”[1] of one count of interstate transport of firearms in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(3) and one count...

Recently, In United States v. Bardakova, No. 24-2038, the Second Circuit affirmed a district court order applying the fugitive disentitlement doctrine to a Russian citizen who fled the U.S. days after meeting with FBI agents, and who refused to return...

Conspiracy charges are among the most potent instruments in the prosecutor’s toolkit. In a conspiracy case, the government need only prove that there was an illegal agreement, even if no crime occurred or could occur (such as in the case...

In recent months, the Second Circuit has frequently opined on issues related to the sufficiency of evidence for proving a defendant had the requisite knowledge of a conspiracy. This series of blog posts aims to synthesize these recent holdings, and...

In United States v. Dennis, 132 F.4th 214 (2d Cir. 2025), an appeal following a trial at which the defendant represented himself pro se, the Second Circuit (Raggi, Wesley, and Kahn) clarified the extent of evidence sufficient to prove “true...

In United States v. Lawrence, the Second Circuit (Park, Menashi, and Kahn) affirmed the within-Guidelines sentence of Andrew Lawrence, who pleaded guilty to six counts of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute crack cocaine and other controlled substances in...

In United States v. Sterkaj, the Second Circuit (Cabranes, Raggi, and Nathan) vacated a sentence imposed on Klaudio Sterkaj because it represented an impermissible upward variance under United States v. Stratton, 820 F.2d 562 (2d Cir. 1987), which holds that...

Recently, the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment and sentencing of two participants in a murder-for-hire plot.  In United States v. Zhang, et al., No. 24-1532 (L), No. 24-1615 (Con), the Second Circuit (Sullivan, Wesley, Park) rejected the defendants-appellants’ argument that...

In United States v. Poole, the Second Circuit (Livingston, Nardini, and Menashi) affirmed the imposition of a suspicionless search as a condition of supervised release. In the opinion the Court utilized the framework articulated in its 2024 decision United States...

In United States v. Poller, the Second Circuit (Parker, Bianco, Nardini) held that an officer’s use of an iPhone camera to view the contents of an automobile through tinted windows was not a search because the defendant did not have...

Introduction In In Re: Grand Jury Subpoenas Dated September 13, 2023, a Second Circuit panel (Lynch, Robinson, Merriam) provided guidance on a variety of complex issues related to grand jury subpoenas, attorney-client privilege, and the provisions of federal securities law prohibiting...

In United States v. Lewis, the Second Circuit (per curiam) affirmed the judgment of conviction of Chanette Lewis, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371.  The Court...

Introduction             In United States v. Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S., A/K/A Halkbank, the Second Circuit (Kearse, Cabranes, and Bianco) held that the common law of foreign sovereign immunity does not protect Halkbank from criminal prosecution based on its commercial activities.  The...

In United States v. DiMassa, the Second Circuit (Lohier and Nathan, and Parker, dissenting in part) affirmed the conviction and sentence of John Trasacco after a jury found him guilty of fraud in connection with the receipt of fraudulent COVID-19...

In United States v. Aiello, the Second Circuit (Raggi, Chin, Sullivan) remanded the cases of Steven Aiello, Joseph Gerardi, Louis Ciminelli, and Alain Kaloyeros (collectively, the “defendant-appellants”) for retrial on their convictions for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire...

In United States v. Suquilanda, the Second Circuit (Newman, Lee, and Nathan) affirmed Manuel Antonio Suquilanda’s indictment and conviction for unlawful reentry into the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326, which makes it a crime for non-citizens...

In United States v. Boima, the Second Circuit (Livingston, Sullivan, and Menashi) (per curiam) reiterated that a district court must consider and make findings as to all four factors articulated in Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003) before...

In United States v. Rivera, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Chin, and Nathan) affirmed the conviction and sentence of Victor Rivera, who pleaded guilty to one count of Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951.  The Court...

In United States v. Rainford, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Menashi, and Merriam, concurring in part and dissenting in part) affirmed the judgments of conviction of three defendant-appellants who had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud...

In United States v. Bradley, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Sullivan’s holding that he, a current circuit judge and former district judge, could temporarily sit by designation as a district judge, to continue working on...

In a rare interlocutory appeal in United States v. Garnes, 102 F.4th 628, the Second Circuit (Lynch, Nardini, and Kahn) reversed the district court’s decision excluding statements made by the defendant regarding his criminal history from evidence and remanded the...

In United States v. Aquart, the Second Circuit (Livingston, Raggi, and Carney) affirmed the sentence of Azibo Aquart, who was convicted of multiple federal homicide and drug trafficking crimes.  Aquart was originally sentenced to death, but on direct appeal the...

In United States v. Lajeunesse, the Second Circuit (Leval, Chin, Lee) vacated the conviction of a criminal defendant denied an opportunity to personally address the court during his sentencing hearing.  Background Appellant Terry Lajeunesse had been on probation for a previous...

In United States v. Calk, the Second Circuit (Calabresi, Lohier, Nathan) affirmed the conviction of Stephen Calk for one count of financial institution bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery.  On appeal, the Second Circuit rejected...

In United States v. Hunt, the Second Circuit (Walker, Parker, and Bianco) affirmed the conviction and sentence of Brendan Hunt, who in the wake of the 2020 presidential election threatened prominent elected officials on various social media platforms.  On appeal,...

On August 30, 2023, in United States v. Avenatti, the Second Circuit (Walker, Raggi, Park) put another nail in the coffin of disgraced former celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti.  Avenatti became well-known in 2018 due to his representation of Stephanie Clifford,...

In Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), the Supreme Court held that attorneys must advise their noncitizen clients of the risk of deportation arising from criminal conviction, and that the failure to do so violates the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee...

It has been common knowledge to criminal practitioners for years that a criminal defendant's sentence for a crime of which they have been convicted can be increased based on acquitted conduct. Even long before the Sentencing Guidelines were conceived and...

In a recent opinion, the Second Circuit upheld a 57-month sentence that applied a two-level sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice and rejected a request for a sentencing reduction for acceptance of responsibility where the defendant pled guilty to wire...

In Watts v. United States, the Second Circuit (Livingston, Parker, Park) issued an unpublished summary order that affirmed Michael Watts’ convictions for his role in a pump-and-dump scheme, and agreed with the government that his sentence of one year and...

In its most recent opinion in the United States v. Eldridge case, the Second Circuit (Chin, Sullivan, and Nardini) (the “panel”) held that second-degree kidnapping under New York Penal Law is not a crime of violence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §...

In United States v. Lewis, the Second Circuit (Lohier, Carney, and Nathan) affirmed a gun-related conviction, but rejected the district court’s assertion that a bright-line rule bars the application of the Fourth Amendment to shared spaces in a multi-family building.[1]The panel emphasized...

In United States v. Kukushkin, the Second Circuit (Pooler, Lohier, and Nathan) affirmed the conviction of Andrey Kukushkin for conspiring to illegally donate monies to a political campaign in violation of 52 U.S.C. §§ 30121, 30122 and 18 U.S.C. § 371...

In United States v. Mendlowitz, the Second Circuit (Kearse, Pooler, and Menashi) issued a summary order in which the panel affirmed the defendant-appellant’s conviction for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.[i] In so doing, the Court determined that...

In United States v. Percoco, the Second Circuit (Raggi, Chin, Sullivan)[1] the Second Circuit affirmed the convictions of several defendants involved in the so-called “Buffalo Billion” scandal.  The charged crimes included three distinct schemes.  One involved bid rigging by a lobbyist,...

The Second Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed a panel decision holding that officers lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk defendant Calvin Weaver after a traffic stop.  The en banc majority (Judge Nardini, who authored the opinion, Chief Judge Livingston, and Judges...

In United States v. Kassir, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Nardini) held that the concurrent sentence doctrine applies to collateral review of criminal convictions.  Under the doctrine, a court may decline to consider a challenge where it would have no effect on...

Recently, the Second Circuit upheld the conviction and 40-year sentence of a Hezbollah operative.  In United States v. Kourani, No. 19-cr-4292 (Cabranes, Kearse, Pooler), the Court rejected the defendant’s various arguments that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, that the...

In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Fowler, the Second Circuit (Lohier, Nardini, and Cronan, sitting by designation) affirmed the imposition of civil penalties and disgorgement against a financial broker.[1]  In so doing, the Second Circuit addressed whether the statute of...

In United States v. Korchevsky, the Second Circuit (Walker, Parker, Carney) affirmed two defendants’ conspiracy and securities fraud convictions over defendants’ myriad claims of error, which included challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence, including as to venue; and contentions...

In United States v. Eldridge, the Second Circuit (Chin, Sullivan, Nardini) affirmed the convictions of a group of co-defendants who were indicted on a litany of charges, many of which related to the attempted robbery of a rival dealer.  This appeal...

In United States v. Williams, a per curiam decision, the Second Circuit (Pooler, Sullivan, Park) affirmed the imposition of a 20-year term of supervised release on a defendant convicted of child pornography offenses, holding that it is plain from the...

In United States v. Carlineo, the Second Circuit (Parker, Lohier, Menashi) vacated a special condition of supervised release requiring the defendant to participate in a restorative justice program, concluding both that the condition was impermissibly vague, and that it improperly...

In United States v. McCoy (Kearse, Parker, Sullivan), the Second Circuit held that attempt to commit Hobbs Act robbery qualifies as a crime of violence, siding with the majority of circuit courts, and parting ways with the Fourth Circuit and...

In United States v. Vinokurov, the Second Circuit (Wesley, Carney, Nardini) issued a summary order directing the district court to resentence Defendant Avtandil Khurtsidze in connection with his conviction on charges of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. ...

In United States v. Chow, the Second Circuit (Kearse, Carney, Bianco), affirmed the defendant’s 2018 conviction for insider trading (among other offenses).  The case arose out of a failed 2016 merger spearheaded by Defendant Benjamin Chow, who passed along key...