The Binding Effect of Plea Agreements In White Collar Crimes

Federal plea agreements sometimes state explicitly that they are limited to that one office and do not bind other U.S. attorney's offices. That is true in the eastern and southern districts of New York, and such agreements have been construed to bind only the one office. But many districts do not use that specific language. Plea agreements often refer to promises made on behalf of "the United States" or "the government," and such phrasing has created ambiguity in subsequent prosecutions of a defendant who has a plea agreement with another district. In such cases, the circuits are split on how to interpret the scope of "the government."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held that ambiguous plea agreements should be presumed to bind U.S. attorney's offices in other districts, and the Fourth and Eighth Circuits have gone further, holding that terms such as "the United States" and "the government" bind every governmental agency under the supervision of the attorney general. The Second and Seventh Circuits have rejected that approach, holding that general references to the government should be construed to bind only the office of the attorney for the district entering into the agreement.