Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of what happens when a veteran faces federal charges - not the sanitized version other lawyers present, not the television fiction, but the actual truth about how the federal system treats those who served this country.
You served your country. You took an oath. You sacrificed years of your life, possibly your mental health, maybe pieces of your body. And now youre facing federal charges, and somewhere in the back of your mind is this thought: "Surely my service will count for something."
It wont. Not the way you think. The federal system has explicitly decided that your military service is, in their words, "not ordinarily relevant" to your sentencing. Let that sink in for a moment. The same government that sent you to war has written into its guidelines that your sacrifice doesnt ordinarily matter when they prosecute you.
What The Federal System Actually Says About Your Service
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines were amended in 2010. Section 5H1.11. Look it up if you dont beleive me. The Commission drew an explicit distinction between military service and other forms of public service, and concluded that military service is "not ordinarily relevant" in determining whether a departure from the guidelines is warranted.
Not ordinarily relevant.
Those three words should terrify every veteran facing federal charges. Because what they mean is this: your standard honorable discharge, your years of service, your deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan - the judge cannot typicaly use any of that to give you a lighter sentence. The guidelines dont allow it.
Prior to the 2010 amendment, military service was also considered not ordinarily relevant. The Commission basicly doubled down on exclusion. They looked at the question of whether veterans deserved special consideration in federal sentencing and answered with a resounding no. The written commentary makes clear that military service, civic service, and charitable work are all lumped together as things that generaly shouldnt affect your sentence.
Now theres a caveat. "Exceptional" military service may be considered. But heres were people get confused. Exceptional doesnt mean decorated. It doesnt mean multiple combat tours. The threshold is deliberatly vague, which means judges are reluctant to find it applies. They dont want to be overturned on appeal for departing based on something the guidelines say isnt ordinarily relevant.
What would qualify as exceptional? The case law gives almost no guidance. A Medal of Honor recipient might qualify. Might. Someone who saved lives in combat might qualify. Might. But your two tours in Afghanistan, your combat action ribbon, your years of faithful service - none of that automaticaly rises to the level of "exceptional" as federal courts interpret it.
Todd Spodek has explained this reality to hundreds of clients who walked in believing their service would save them. It never works the way they expect. The look on their faces when they realize - thats the moment that makes this work so difficult. They gave everthing to this country. And the country wrote guidelines that basicly say it doesnt matter.
Why Veterans Treatment Courts Cant Help You Here
Youve probaby heard about Veterans Treatment Courts. Theres over 600 of them across the country. They offer diversion programs, treatment instead of incarceration, a chance to address underlying issues like PTSD or substance abuse without destroying your life. Defense attorneys talk about them all the time. Legal websites mention them constantly.
Heres what nobody tells you: Veterans Treatment Courts exist only at the state and local level. There is no federal Veterans Treatment Court.
None. Zero. The Bureau of Justice Assistance, which funds these programs, explicitely funds "state, local, and tribal efforts." Not federal. If your facing federal charges, the entire VTC system that everyone talks about is completly unavailable to you.
The first Veterans Treatment Court was established in Buffalo, New York, in 2008. It was a brilliant idea: instead of sending traumatized veterans through the regular criminal justice system, these specialized courts connect them with treatment, with mentors, with VA services. Participants who complete the program can have charges dismissed entirely. Its exactly the kind of second chance that veterans deserve.
But its a state court program. And the federal system never adopted it. Never even tried.
Think about that irony for a moment. The federal goverment created the VA. The federal goverment sent you overseas. The federal goverment broke you. And when the federal goverment prosecutes you, it offers absolutly no specialized program to account for what it did to you.
State courts - which had nothing to do with your military service - offer more protection then the goverment that deployed you. The county court in some random jurisdiction gives you better options then the United States Department of Justice. Its backwards. Its cruel. And its the reality your facing.
How Prosecutors Turn Your Honor Against You
This is the part that makes veterans sick to there stomachs when they hear it for the first time.
Prosecutors in federal court dont just ignore your military service. They weaponize it. The argument goes like this: "Your Honor, this defendant served in the United States military. He recieved training in discipline, judgment, and ethics. He took an oath to uphold the law. Unlike a civilian defendant, this person should have known better."
Should have known better.
Those four words destory veterans in federal court. Not because there false - you probably did know better. But because the implication is devistating. The prosecutor is essentialy arguing that your military background makes your crime worse, not understandable. That your training makes you more culpable, not more sympathetic. That the oath you took to serve your country becomes evidence of the oath you broke when you commited this offense.
Your discipline becomes evidence of culpability. Your leadership experience becomes proof you understood consequences. Your oath of office becomes a broken promise the prosecutor waves in front of the jury. The very qualites that made you valuable to your country become the qualites that make you more blameworthy to a federal prosecutor.
Look at the Jan 6 cases. Marine veterans. Army veterans. Navy veterans. Over and over, prosecutors emphasized their military backgrounds not as mitigation but as aggravation. "This wasnt some confused civilian who got swept up in a crowd. This was a trained soldier who knew exactley what he was doing."
One military veteran recieved a life sentence. His tactical training was presented as evidence he was more dangerous, not more sympathetic. The very skills the Army spent years teaching him - how to plan, how to execute, how to lead - became the prosecutions evidence that he was a sophisticated criminal rather then a broken warrior.
The same pattern plays out in white collar cases. Veteran starts a business. Business runs into trouble. Desperate moves are made. Federal charges follow. And then: "Your Honor, this defendant wasnt some naive civilian who didnt understand finance. This was an officer who managed million dollar budgets in the military. He knew exactly what he was doing when he submitted those fraudulent documents."
Weve seen this pattern at Spodek Law Group in case after case. Client walks in thinking their Bronze Star will help. Then we explain how the prosecutor is probly going to use that Bronze Star against them. The more decorated you are, the more ammunition you give them.
The VA Benefits Trap Nobody Warns You About
Federal charges trigger consequences beyond the courtroom. Your VA disability benefits - the money you rely on, that your family dependes on - start disappearing the moment you step into federal custody. And nobody warns you about this untill its to late.
Heres the timeline that destroyes families:
Day 1-60: Benefits continue normaly. You might not even realize theres a clock ticking. Your family is still recieving payments. Everything seems stable on that front.
Day 61: If your incarcerated for a felony, your disability compensation drops. Veterans rated 20% or higher get reduced to the 10% payment rate. Veterans rated at 10% get cut in half. That check your family has been counting on - the one that pays the mortgage, that buys groceries, that keeps the lights on - just got slashed.
The average federal pretrial detention is longer then 60 days. Most people dont make bail in federal court. The median bail in federal cases is typicaly around $10,000, but many veterans dont have that kind of cash available. Which means most veterans facing federal charges will see their benefits slashed before theyve even been convicted of anything.
Read that again. Before conviction. Your still presumed innocent. You havent been found guilty of anything. But the VA has already started reducing your benefits because your in custody. Your family is still paying the mortgage. Still buying groceries. Still trying to survive. But now the check that was keeping them afloat just got decimated because your sitting in a detention center waiting for a trial that might not happen for months.
And if your convicted? If you go to federal prison? Those reduced payments continue for your entire sentence. Years. Decades in some cases. The reduction doesnt end until your released.
The good news - if you can call it that - is that benefits arent terminated completly. The VA reduces them but doesnt eliminate them entirely for disability compensation. And your family can apply for apportionment, meaning some of the reduced amount can be paid directly to your dependents. But the process is buracratic, slow, and requires knowing that the option even exists. Most families dont know.
The VA isnt trying to punish you. Its the law. But nobody explains this consequence untill its too late. Nobody connects the dots between "federal charge" and "your family loses their income." By the time most veterans realize whats happening, the damage is already done.
When Your PTSD Documentation Becomes Evidence
You did the right thing. You got help. You filed a VA disability claim for PTSD. You documented your symptoms, your nightmares, your triggers, your difficulity concentrating, your hypervigilance. You got treatment. You took medication. You followed the rules.
Now your facing federal charges. And all of that documentation? Its discoverable.
Prosecutors can subpoena your VA medical records. All of them. They will find every apointment you attended, every symptom you reported, every treatment you recieved. They will find the notes your therapist took. They will find your disability rating determination. They will find records of every medication perscribed. And then they will make this argument:
"The defendant knew he had PTSD. He knew he had mental health issues. The VA gave him resources, gave him treatment, gave him medication. He had every oportunity to manage his condition. Yet he chose to commit this offense anyway. His mental health history doesnt excuse his conduct - it proves he understood he had problems and failed to address them adequatly."
Your treatment becomes evidence of your culpability. Your help-seeking becomes proof you knew you needed help and didnt get enough of it. Your attempts to be responsable become the foundation for an argument that your irresponsable. The very records that got you a disability rating now become the prosecutions exhibit A for why you should have controled yourself.
This is particuarly devastating in cases involving violence or impaired judgement. The prosecutor will argue: "The defendant documented hypervigilance and anger issues in his VA claim. He knew he had these tendencies. He should have avoided the situation that led to this crime. His awareness of his condition makes his failure to manage it more blameworthy, not less."
PTSD can still be raised as mitigation. Courts do recognize it as a legitimate factor. The case law allows for PTSD to support insanity defenses, diminished capacity arguments, and sentencing mitigation. But the days when a PTSD diagnosis would generate automatic sympathy are long gone. Prosecutors have learned to flip the narrative. And if you documented your condition extensivley - which you should have done, for benefits purposes - you gave them ammunition.
What makes this especialy cruel is that the VA encouraged you to document everthing. The more detail you provided, the stronger your disability claim. The system rewarded thorough documentation. But that same thorough documentation now sits in a file that federal prosecutors can access with a subpoena.
The Numbers That Should Terrify You
Let me give you some statistics that cut through the noise.
99.6%. Thats the federal conviction rate. Once your charged in federal court, you are almost certainly going to be convicted. They dont bring cases they might lose.
181,000. Thats how many veterans are currently behind bars in this country. One hundred eighty one thousand people who served their country are now serving time.
5%. Thats the percentage of federal prisoners who are veterans. About 9,000 people whose military service did not save them from federal prison.
1 in 3. Thats how many veterans have been arrested or jailed at least once. One in three. If you served, theres a one-third chance youve already had contact with the criminal justice system.
23 years. Thats the average time between military separation and a federal offense. Which tells you something important: whatever happened to you in the service, it doesnt go away. It surfaces decades later. The trauma, the coping mechanisms, the damage - it takes years to manifest in ways that lead to federal charges.
Zero. Thats the number of federal Veterans Treatment Courts. Zero programs designed specificaly for veterans in the federal system.
These numbers paint a picture that should alarm every veteran. The system is not set up to help you. The system is set up to convict you and imprison you and strip your benefits while you rot.
What Actually Works in Federal Court
So what can actually help a veteran facing federal charges? Its a narrow path, but it exists.
First: you need an attorney who understands both federal court and veterans issues. Not someone whose going to walk in expecting sympathy. Someone who knows the guidelines, knows the case law, knows how to frame military service in a way that might - might - qualify as "exceptional."
Second: early intervention matters more then anything. The window for cooperation, for plea negotiations, for positioning your case shrinks rapidly. Federal prosecutors have already built their case before you know your a target. You dont have months to figure this out.
Third: the PTSD defense requires expert testimony. Not just "my client has PTSD." You need forensic psychiatric evaluation that explains specifically how the condition affected conduct, how it relates to military service, how it meets whatever legal standard your pursuing. Courts have rejected PTSD defenses when the expert testimony failed to connect the dots.
Fourth: you need to understand that your service record can still help, just not in the obvious way. The goal is to reframe the narrative. Instead of "military training proves culpability," you want "military trauma explains conduct." Instead of "should have known better," you want "tried to do better but the damage was too deep."
At Spodek Law Group, we dont promise outcomes we cant deliver. What we do is fight with everything we have using every tool that actually works in federal court.
The Clock Is Already Running
Heres the uncomfortable truth: if your reading this, the situation is probaly already urgent.
Federal investigations happen quietly. By the time you know your a target, they might have been building a case for months. Years even. They have been gathering evidence while you lived your life unaware. They interviewed witnesses. They obtained records. They built their case methodicaly, with unlimited time and resources. They had years to prepare. You dont.
The 60-day clock on your VA benefits starts the moment your in custody. Every day of pretrial detention is a day your family loses income. Every week that passes is another week closer to that reduction hitting.
The cooperation window - your best chance at a reduced sentence - closes faster then you think. Prosecutors value cooperation most when its early, when it helps them build their case against others. Once the indictment is filed, your leverage diminishes. Once theyre ready for trial, your leverage is almost gone. Once you go to trial and lose, cooperation wont save you at all.
You cannot afford to wait. You cannot afford to assume your service will protect you. You cannot afford to beleive the things that worked in state court will work here. The federal system operates differently, and those differences will destroy you if you dont understand them.
The government that sent you to war offers no mercy when it prosecutes you. That is the reality. The only question is what your going to do about it.
Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. We understand what veterans face in federal court because weve been there hundreds of times. We know the prosecutors playbook. We know how to fight back. We know which arguments work and which ones will make things worse.
They have unlimited resources and years of preparation. You have days. Maybe weeks. Use them wisely. Your service didnt earn you protection in federal court. But it did earn you the right to fight back with someone who understands what your up against.
