Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (July 2022)

This post summarizes criminal and related decisions published by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during July 2022. Cases of interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous Fourth Circuit case summaries are available here. Application of the “silent witness rule” did not violate the defendant’s rights to a public trial or to present a defense U.S. v. Mallory, 40 F.4th 166 (July 11, 2022). The defendant, a former CIA agent and intelligence officer, was charged with making false statements to the FBI and conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government in the Eastern District of Virginia (among other charges). The government requested and the trial court approved the use of the “silent witness” rule to handle classified information pertinent to the case, whereby the court, the parties, and the jury can hear the classified information, but it is withheld from the public. During trial, the defense presented publicly available information to counter the government’s evidence that the information transmitted by the defendant was classified. The government objected that this open-source information, when combined with witness testimony, would inevitably reveal classified information to the public. The trial court applied the silent witness rule to the open-source information offered by the defense along with the government’s classified information, allowing the jurors to have a written copy of the materials and allowing the parties to question witnesses about the documents without discussing the specific documents or their contents. The defendant was convicted of the conspiracy and false statements offenses and [...]