Opinion ID: 369230
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Remedy if Taint is Found

Text: 22 In Genser II the appellants before us had been convicted after a trial. In those circumstances we remanded for a reconsideration of the taint issue, retaining jurisdiction over the appeal for the obvious purpose of considering whether, if suppression were appropriate with respect to some of the evidence presented, a new trial might be necessary. In this case, because of the Zudick plea, there is only a partial trial record in Serubo's case, and none in the other cases. Thus the issue here is not whether the convictions are the result of tainted evidence, but whether suppression motions should have been granted. The difference in procedural posture requires a consideration of remedies. 23 The defendants moved both to suppress evidence obtained as a result of Donaldson-LaSalle violations and to quash the indictment. If after further proceedings the district court should conclude that such evidence obtained through IRS subpoenas issued during Phase II of the investigation was used by the government in obtaining the indictment or was likely to have been relied upon in a trial, all such evidence should, of course, be suppressed. At that point the defendants would, at the very least, be entitled to withdraw their guilty pleas and plead anew, after consideration of the strength of the government's case absent the suppressed evidence. Whether the additional relief of quashing the indictment should be granted is a more difficult question. 24 As Judge Biggs pointed out in Genser I, 582 F.2d at 308-09, we deal here with a statutory policy of confining Internal Revenue Service subpoenas to non-criminal purposes. It is hardly a necessary interpretation of 26 U.S.C. § 7602 that it requires suppression of evidence not only at trial (an established remedy), but in a grand jury proceeding as well. In Gelbard v. United States, 408 U.S. 41, 92 S.Ct. 2357, 33 L.Ed.2d 179 (1972), the Supreme Court considering an analogous statutory policy embodied in Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2520, held that a grand jury witness was entitled to refuse to answer questions based upon information seized in violation of that statute. But Gelbard expressly noted that even under Title III a defendant had no standing to contest the illegal provenance of evidence presented to the grand jury. The Court recognized the continuing authority of United States v. Blue, 384 U.S. 251, 84 S.Ct. 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 510 (1966), Lawn v. United States, 355 U.S. 339, 78 S.Ct. 311, 2 L.Ed.2d 321 (1958), and Costello v. United States, 350 U.S. 359, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397 (1956), for the general rule that the quality of the evidence presented to the grand jury is not relevant to the validity of an indictment. 408 U.S. at 60, 92 S.Ct. 2357. The Blue-Lawn-Costello rule was reaffirmed in United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 94 S.Ct. 613, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974), which held that the fourth amendment exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence presented to a grand jury. Given these authorities, we would have to find strong evidence of a Congressional intention to apply the suppression remedy in a grand jury context on account of a Donaldson-LaSalle violation. No such evidence has been called to our attention. Thus we conclude that if after discovery the defendants establish grounds for the suppression of evidence obtained as a result of issuance of the Phase II administrative subpoenas, the only relief to which they would be entitled is the opportunity to withdraw their guilty pleas and plead anew. 25