Opinion ID: 3040311
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: “Government agent”

Text: [4] The Rules do not define the phrase “other government agent.” Although the constituent term “government” is not explicitly defined, it is used as shorthand for “federal government” throughout the Rules.3 In accordance with that construction, Rule 1(b)(1) defines restrictively the term “attorney for the government” to mean (as relevant here) a federal prosecutor.4 3 See, e.g., Rule 7(f) (“The court may direct the government to file a bill of particulars.”); Rule 9(a) (“The court must issue a warrant—or at the government’s request, a summons—for each defendant named in an indictment or named in an information if one or more affidavits accompanying the information establish probable cause . . . .”); Rule 11(a)(2) (“With the consent of the court and the government, a defendant may enter a conditional plea of guilty or nolo contendere . . . .”); Rule 12(b)(4) (entitled “Notice of the Government’s Intent to Use Evidence”); Rule 12(h) (“At a suppression hearing, a law enforcement officer is considered a government witness.”); Rule 12.1(b) (requiring attorney for the government to disclose information for “each witness the government intends to rely on to establish the defendant’s presence at the scene” and “each government rebuttal witness to the defendant’s alibi defense”); Rule 12.2(c)(3) (referring to the “government’s examination” of the defendant’s mental competency in context of insanity defense); see also Rules 5(c)(3)(D)(I), 5.1(a)(3) & (4), 5.1(f), 12.3(a)(4), 12.4(a)(2), 14(a), 14(b), 15(d), 17(b), 18, 23(a)(2), 24(b)(1) & (2), 26.3, 28, 29(a), 29.1, 31(b)(3), 32.1(a)(5)(B)(I), 32.2(a), 32.2(b)(1) & (4), 32.2(e)(1) & (2), 35(b), 41(a)(2)(C), 42(a)(2), 46(f)(3)(A) & (C), 48(a). 4 Rule 1(b)(1) provides: “Attorney for the government” means: (A) the Attorney General or an authorized assistant; (B) a United States attorney or an authorized assistant; (C) when applicable to cases arising under Guam law, the Guam Attorney General or other person whom Guam law authorizes to act in the matter; and 348 UNITED STATES v. FORT Even though “government” means “federal government” in Rule 16(a)(2), we are still left to determine who qualifies as an “agent” of the federal government in the context of the discovery process in a federal criminal prosecution. Defendants urge us to limit the concept of “government agent” to those individuals who were employed directly by the federal government or who were acting at the federal prosecutor’s direction at the time that they drafted a report. In contrast, the government urges that the term “government agent” be given a broader definition that would include state or local police officers whose investigation of a defendant provides evidence to support a federal prosecution of the same defendant for the activities so investigated. Both readings are plausible, so we must look more deeply. It is a general rule of statutory construction that “identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning.” Gustafson v. Alloyd Co., 513 U.S. 561, 570 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, we first examine the other parts of Rule 16 for guidance. Rule 16(a)(1)(A) and (B) both refer to a “government agent.” Rule 16(a)(1)(A) provides: Upon a defendant’s request, the government must disclose to the defendant the substance of any relevant oral statement made by the defendant, before or after arrest, in response to interrogation by a person the defendant knew was a government agent if the government intends to use the statement at trial. (Emphasis added.)5 As is true of Rule 16(a)(2), the term “gov- (D) any other attorney authorized by law to conduct proceedings under these rules as a prosecutor. 5 Rule 16(a)(1)(B) provides: Upon a defendant’s request, the government must disclose to the defendant . . . all of the following: UNITED STATES v. FORT 349 ernment agent” is not specifically defined in Rule 16(a)(1)(A). But Rule 16(a)(1)(A) has been read to require federal prosecutors to disclose statements made by defendants to local law enforcement officers so long as such statements are in the federal prosecutor’s possession at the time of trial. See United States v. Mitchell, 613 F.2d 779, 781 (10th Cir. 1980) (holding that Rule 16(a)(1)(A)’s disclosure requirement applies to a statement made by the defendant to a state probation officer); see also United States v. Rinn, 586 F.2d 113, 120 (9th Cir. 1978) (analyzing under Rule 16(a)(1)(A) the government’s failure to disclose the defendant’s statement to an undercover state police officer and holding that there was no violation, but only because the defendant’s statement was not in response to “interrogation”); United States v. Cooper, 800 F.2d 412, 416 (4th Cir. 1986) (same, with regard to the defendant’s incriminating statements to a D.C. corrections officer); United States v. Brazel, 102 F.3d 1120, 1150 (11th Cir. 1997) (holding that the government did not violate Rule 16(a)(1)(A) by failing to disclose the defendant’s state-court guilty pleas before trial, where it disclosed them as soon as it gained possession). We have found no contradictory construction of Rule 16(a)(1)(B). (i) any relevant written or recorded statement by the defendant if: • the statement is within the government’s possession, custody, or control; and • the attorney for the government knows—or through due diligence could know—that the statement exists; (ii) the portion of any written record containing the substance of any relevant oral statement made before or after arrest if the defendant made the statement in response to interrogation by a person the defendant knew was a government agent; and (iii) the defendant’s recorded testimony before a grand jury relating to the charged offense. (Emphasis added.) 350 UNITED STATES v. FORT The government’s proposed reading of “government agent” is consistent, then, with decisions implementing the same phrase in Rule 16(a)(1)(A). Even so, Defendant’s narrower construction is still plausible. Therefore, we look beyond Rule 16 for additional insight. Few of the Rules address the kind of potential cooperation between federal and non-federal players raised in this appeal, so they offer little guidance in interpreting Rule 16’s use of the term “government agent.” See supra note 2. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 is one of the few Rules, other than Rule 16, that pertains to potential cooperation among federal, state, and local law enforcement. The commentary to Rule 6 assists us in understanding the Advisory Committee’s general concerns for a practical, cooperative approach. [5] Rule 6 governs federal grand jury proceedings. In establishing exceptions to the general rule of secrecy for grand jury proceedings, Rule 6(e)(3) allows disclosure to “any government personnel—including those of a state, state subdivision, Indian tribe, or foreign government—that an attorney for the government considers necessary to assist in performing that attorney’s duty to enforce criminal law.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(3)(A)(ii) (emphasis added). Thus, “government personnel” is defined expressly to incorporate not only federal authorities, but also employees of non-federal government entities that are engaged in assisting federal criminal law enforcement. In explaining the rationale for this expansive definition, the Advisory Committee described concerns equally apropos to Rule 16: It is clearly desirable that federal and state authorities cooperate, as they often do, in organized crime and racketeering investigations, in public corruption and major fraud cases, and in various other situations where federal and state criminal jurisdictions overlap. Because of such cooperation, government attorneys in complex grand jury investigations frequently UNITED STATES v. FORT 351 find it necessary to enlist the help of a team of government agents. While the agents are usually federal personnel, it is not uncommon in certain types of investigations that federal prosecutors wish to obtain the assistance of state law enforcement personnel, which could be uniquely beneficial. The amendment permits disclosure to those personnel in the circumstances stated. Fed. R. Crim. P. 6(e)(3)(A)(ii) (1985 amendments) advisory committee’s note. [6] Although the Advisory Committee has not amended Rule 16 to include a similar (or, indeed, any) express definition of “government agent,” Rule 16 has not been subject to the type of conflict among district courts that prompted the Advisory Committee to amend Rule 6.6 The practical and policy considerations are parallel. We thus find it more reasonable that, read in context, “government agent” includes nonfederal personnel whose work contributes to a federal criminal “case.”