{"id":61562,"date":"2025-07-29T09:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=61562"},"modified":"2025-07-29T09:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:46:16","slug":"d-d-c-vague-and-unsupported-allegations-of-4a-violation-during-pretrial-crime-scene-walk-through-denied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=61562","title":{"rendered":"D.D.C.: Vague and unsupported allegations of 4A violation during pretrial crime scene walk through denied"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defendant is a pardoned Jan. 6th defendant who had a pretrial walk through at the Capitol in October 2024. He claims the AUSA and FBI tried to read his notes in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite his pardon, he seeks sanctions. Denied. United States v. Pope<\/a>, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143979 (D.D.C. July 28, 2025)*:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Defendant next seeks sanctions for actions of FBI agents during his court-ordered Capitol walkthrough tour on October 20, 2024; these also fail to constitute sanctionable conduct. Mr. Pope claims that the agent’s actions were improper search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, an illegal attempt to obtain attorney work product, and an illegal attempt to violate attorney-client privilege between himself and his standby counsel. To begin with, even if the actions of FBI agents are attributable to the Government, the Government disputes the allegation that any of the agents present attempted to interfere with or record Mr. Pope’s legal notes. Gov’t Second Resp. at 2. Defendant provides no evidence to support his claims, making it impossible for the Court to determine whether the agents attempted to read his notes or acted in bad faith. Even if a Fourth Amendment violation occurred, sanctions are not the proper remedy. See, e.g., United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 338 (1974) (finding the exclusionary rule, “under which evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment or the fruits of such evidence cannot be used in a criminal proceeding against the victim of the illegal search and seizure,” is the proper remedy for a Fourth Amendment violation). Further, attorney-client privilege does not apply to pro se defendants. United States v. Singhal, 800 F. Supp. 2d 1, 5-6 (D.D.C. 2011) (Attorney-client privilege applies only if “the person to whom the communication was made \u2026 is a member of the bar of a court”). Mrs. Cubbage’s potential ability to read Defendant’s notes does not confer privilege upon them. Id. Regardless, the Government is not attempting to introduce Defendant’s notes against him in a legal proceeding or use them in an otherwise improper manner; thus, attorney-client and work-product protection are inapplicable. As there is no clear and convincing evidence of misconduct nor a demonstration of bad faith, the Court cannot sanction the agents under its inherent powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defendant is a pardoned Jan. 6th defendant who had a pretrial walk through at the Capitol in October 2024. He claims the AUSA and FBI tried to read his notes in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite his pardon, he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-burden-of-pleading","category-burden-of-proof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61563,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61562\/revisions\/61563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}