What We Have Here Is Failure to Cooperate: The Thompson Memorandum and Federal Prosecution of White-Collar Crime

This paper assesses the federal government's regulation of white-collar criminal prosecution as articulated in the 2003 memorandum issued by then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson. In particular, the paper is critical of the memorandum's open inducement to corporations under investigation to waive attorney-client privilege and refuse to advance attorneys' fees to individual defendants. The paper proposes specific reforms to reduce the tendency of government prosecutions to infringe on important individual liberties.

Brian Walsh and Henry Aaron, Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum 19, November 2006

 

 

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Published by the Manhattan Institute

The Manhattan Insitute's Center for Legal Policy.