Indicted for Writing Opinion Letters

Would the government actually indict an attorney premised upon allegations that the attorney wrote several opinion letters for another lawyer?  As surprising as it might seem, the answer is "yes." The government has indicted Attorney Ben Kuehne for his alleged writing of six opinion letters based upon his investigation of whether funds being paid to an attorney were proceeds of criminal conduct.

Several observations and comments on the Indictment and the accompanying Motion to Seal:

• The indictment is preceded by a page titled - "Motion to Seal."  It is signed by a "trial attorney - DOJ." It requests the indictment be sealed "for the reason that the named defendants may flee and the integrity of the ongoing investigation may be compromised." - Did the government really believe that Attorney Ben Kuehne would flee?  A later sentence states that"many of the named defendants are foreign nationals." But the government fails to limit the language used in the prior sentence that explicitly states "that the named defendants may flee" to only those who might be foreign nationals.  That is a powerful statement to claim that a prominent Miami attorney might flee.  If they didn't mean to apply this statement to him, is it prosecutorial over-reaching, an attempt to taint the accused, or just sloppy drafting? 
• The indictment alleges that Kuehne's opinion letters were inaccurate in stating that some of the moneys had come from an individual/company that "his investigation" "had determined.... were reputable and well-established, without any connection to illegal activities."  The indictment claims that some of these opinions were untrue because moneys had in fact come from "undercover law enforcement operations."  ----  Isn't the very purpose of an undercover operation to make it seem like things are real?  Is this a situation of accusing someone of issuing incorrect opinion letters because the government did a good job of misleading him?
• Count Six of the Indictment charges Obstruction of Justice. The charge is expressed in a total of 2 sentences. It states: 

"From on or about January 23, 2003, continuing to the date of this indictment, the defendants, .......did corruptly endeavor to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice; that is investigations by the grand jury; to wit, endeavoring to influence, obstruct, and impede a federal investigation, as set forth above.  In violation of Title 18, United States Code, s 1503."  (names omitted)

A charge without any facts?  Did the government actually put a mere restatement of section 1503 as the basis of a criminal charge against an attorney? Co-blogger Peter Henning called the Indictment of Ben Kuehne a "head-scratcher," but that was prior to receiving the document. But after reading it, I'd go a step further - they have actually indicted an attorney for obstruction of justice and alleged no facts in this count to support the charge.  It almost sounds like a case the 11th Circuit reversed, U.S. v. Thomas, 916 F.2d 547 (11th Cir. 1990).

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this indictment is that it represents yet another instance of the government interfering in the payment of attorney fees for the criminally accused.  As opposed to going to court and asking for the fees to be returned as improper, they have opted to proceed with criminal charges that in some cases carry up to 20 years.

Indictment - Download us_v_kuehne_indictment_oct_2007.pdf

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