Target Letter vs Grand Jury Subpoena: The Critical Difference

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. If youve recieved federal paperwork and your trying to figure out what it means, your in the right place. But heres the thing - not all federal documents are created equal. And confusing a target letter with a grand jury subpoena can lead to catastrophic mistakes in both directions.

The Fundamental Difference Most People Miss

Both documents come from the federal government. Both involve grand jury investigations. Both suggest you should probly call a lawyer. But the similarity ends there.

The target letter sounds terrifying. The subpoena sounds bureaucratic. But only one can put you in jail for ignoring it.

Thats the sentence you need to internalize. A target letter, despite its scary implications, has zero legal force. Its a notification. An FYI. A heads up. A grand jury subpoena, on the other hand, is a court order backed by the full contempt power of the federal judiciary.

Target letter = prosecutor being polite. Subpoena = prosecutor commanding. Know which one you got.

Ive seen people panic for weeks over target letters they could have legaly ignored. Ive also seen people casualy set aside subpoenas and end up in contempt proceedings. Both mistakes come from the same confusion - treating these fundamentaly different documents as if there the same thing.

What A Grand Jury Subpoena Actually Requires

A grand jury subpoena is a court order. Not a request. Not an invitation. An order.

Under Rule 17 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, failure to obey a subpoena may be deemed contempt of court. Thats not prosecutor discretion - thats black letter law.

A subpoena is a court order backed by contempt power. A target letter is a notification backed by nothing.

There are two types of grand jury subpoenas:

Subpoena Ad Testificandum - This requires you to appear and testify before the grand jury. You must physicaly show up at the designated time and place.

Subpoena Duces Tecum - This requires you to produce documents, records, or other tangible evidence. You must hand over whats demanded.

The DOJ discourages subpoenaing targets to testify. They do it anyway when they want to. This is one of those policies that sounds protective but has significant exceptions. If prosecutors think your testimony will help there case - even against you - they may subpoena you anyway.

Heres what happens if you ignore a grand jury subpoena: The prosecutor goes to the judge. The judge finds you in contempt. You go to jail. You stay in jail until you comply or until the grand jurys term ends. That can be up to 18 months.

This isnt theoretical. It happens.

What A Target Letter Actually Means

A target letter is a very different animal. Its a notification from the prosecutors office informing you that you are the target of a grand jury investigation. It typicaly lists the statutes your suspected of violating and informs you of your Fifth Amendment rights.

You can legaly throw a target letter in the trash. You cannot legaly throw a subpoena in the trash.

Now, should you throw it in the trash? Absolutly not. The target letter contains critical information about where you stand in the investigation. It tells you what crimes they think you committed. It signals that indictment is likely unless something changes. It creates an opportunity window for strategic response.

But the key distinction is this: there is no legal consequence for ignoring a target letter. No contempt. No arrest. No additional charges for failing to respond. The DOJ Justice Manual requires prosecutors to send these letters as a due process protection, but it dosent give them any power to compel your response.

The target letter is the prosecutor saying "we think you committed a crime and were probly going to indict you." Its not the prosecutor saying "you must appear and cooperate."

The Fifth Amendment Trap

This is where things get realy dangerous, and where most people make devastating mistakes.

The Fifth Amendment protects your testimony. It does NOT protect your documents. Thats where people get destroyed.

When your subpoenaed to testify, you can assert your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. You must appear (ignoring the subpoena is still contempt), but once there, you can decline to answer questions that might incriminate you.

But heres the trap: document subpoenas are different.

The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination generaly does not protect against producing documents. If the grand jury subpoenas your bank records, your emails, your contracts - you must produce them. The "act of production" doctrine provides some limited protection, but its narrow and technical.

Corporations have no Fifth Amendment protection. They must produce documents even if those documents incriminate executives.

This is massive. If your a corporate officer and the company recieves a subpoena, that company must comply even if the documents it produces will be used to prosecute you personaly. The corporation is a seperate legal entity with no personal constitutional rights.

Think about what this means practicaly. The prosecutor can use a document subpoena to get evidence that testimony subpoenas couldnt reach. And unlike testimony, you cant "take the Fifth" on paper.

When You Get Both

Sometimes people recieve both a target letter and a grand jury subpoena. This is not random. Its strategic.

Getting both documents usualy means the same grand jury is working multiple angles on you at once.

The sequence matters:

Target letter first, then subpoena: The prosecutor has already decided your likely guilty. The subpoena is gathering additional evidence or testimony. Be extremly careful - this is often a setup for perjury charges if you testify and contradict there other evidence.

Subpoena first, then target letter: You started as a witness or subject. Something in your compliance - maybe the documents you produced, maybe testimony you gave - elevated you to target status. Your own subpoena response may have made you a defendant.

Both simultaneously: The prosecutor is hitting you from multiple directions at once. This is aggressive. It usualy means there building a comprehensive case.

When the same grand jury issues both documents, the target letters statute list tells you what there looking for in the subpoena response. Use that intelligence.

Response Requirements Compared

Let me make this crystal clear:

	Target Letter	Grand Jury Subpoena
Must respond?	No	Yes
Legal consequence of ignoring?	None	Contempt, jail
Issued by?	Prosecutor	Court/Grand Jury
Fifth Amendment?	N/A (no obligation)	Testimony yes, documents mostly no

Ignore a subpoena and your in contempt. Ignore a target letter and... nothing happens legaly.

Contempt for ignoring a subpoena can mean jail until you comply - or until the grand jury ends. Thats up to 18 months.

That said, strategic response to a target letter through experienced counsel can produce dramaticaly better outcomes then silence. Just becuase your not required to respond dosent mean you shouldnt. The target letter creates a window for negotiation, for presenting mitigating information, for potentialy avoiding indictment altogether.

But response is optional. Compliance with a subpoena is not.

The Mistakes That Destroy Cases

Ive been doing this for years. These are the mistakes I see over and over:

Mistake 1: Treating a target letter like a subpoena People panic. They think they have to respond immediatly. They rush to cooperate without counsel. They make statements thinking cooperation is mandatory. Its not. You have time. Use it.

Mistake 2: Treating a subpoena like a target letter People set it aside. They figure theyll deal with it later. They miss deadlines. Then there in contempt proceedings, which creates a whole new set of problems on top of whatever investigation was happening.

Mistake 3: Testifying before the grand jury as a target Almost never do this. The grand jury proceeding is designed for prosecutors. No defense counsel in the room. No rules of evidence. No opportunity to cross-examine. And anything you say that contradicts there other evidence becomes a perjury charge.

Mistake 4: Producing documents without review Complying with a witness subpoena is sometimes exactly what converts you into a target. Those documents you handed over? They might be the evidence that makes you a defendant. Every document should be reviewed with counsel before production.

Mistake 5: Not understanding the Fifth Amendment limits Your subpoena response documents might be exactly what the prosecutor needs to turn your target letter into an indictment. You cant plead the Fifth on documents the way you can on testimony. Know this before you comply.

---

At Spodek Law Group, Todd Spodek and our federal defense team handle both target letter situations and grand jury subpoena compliance every day. We understand the critical differences between these documents and how to respond strategicaly to each.

If youve recieved either document - or both - call us at 212-300-5196. The consultation is confidential. And understanding exactly what your dealing with is the first step toward protecting yourself.