United States v. Concord Management and Consulting LLC


UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. Criminal Action No. 18-cr-32-2 (DLF) CONCORD MANAGEMENT & CONSULTING LLC, Defendant. MEMORANDUM OPINION Concord Management and Consulting LLC moves to dismiss count I of the indictment— brought under the conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371—on the grounds that it (1) fails to allege a defraud conspiracy under § 371 that interferes with a lawful government function; (2) fails to allege a mens rea of “willfulness”; (3) applies § 371’s conspiracy-to-defraud clause to Concord in an unconstitutionally vague manner; and (4) fails to allege the deprivation of government property. For the reasons that follow, the Court will deny Concord’s motion. I. BACKGROUND On February 16, 2018, the grand jury returned an eight-count indictment against thirteen individuals and three corporate entities, including defendant Concord Management and Consulting LLC. Indictment, Dkt. 1.1 Count I of the indictment—the sole count against Concord—charges that Concord and others “knowingly and intentionally conspired to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of State in 1 The Court has previously summarized the procedural history of this case. See United States v. Concord Mgmt. & Consulting LLC, 317 F. Supp. 3d 598, 605–06 (D.D.C. 2018). It repeats that history here only to the extent it relates to the instant motion. administering federal requirements for disclosure of foreign involvement in certain domestic activities.” Id. ¶ 9. The indictment explains that U.S. law “bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections[,] . . . bars agents of any foreign entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without first registering with the Attorney General,” and “requires certain foreign nationals seeking entry to the United States to obtain a visa by providing truthful and accurate information to the government.” Id. ¶ 1. The indictment further states that “[v]arious federal agencies, including [the FEC, DOJ, and DOS], are charged with enforcing these laws.” Id. According to the indictment, Concord or its co-conspirators “interfere[d] with the U.S. political system” by, among other things, “posing as U.S. persons and creating false U.S. personas,” “operat[ing] social media pages and groups” that “falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists,” “us[ing] the stolen identities of real U.S. persons to post” on social media, id. ¶ 4, “travel[ing] to the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence,” “procur[ing] and us[ing] computer infrastructure . . . to hide the Russian origin of their activities and to avoid detection by U.S. regulators and law enforcement,” id. ¶ 5, “buying political advertisements on social media in the names of U.S. persons and entities,” and “solicit[ing] and compensat[ing] real U.S persons” while “posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons,” id. ¶ 6. To do all of this “without detection of their Russian affiliation,” the defendants jointly “conspired to obstruct the lawful functions of ...

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