18 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
The general conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, creates an offense “[i]f two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose.” The gist of the crime is an agreement to defraud the United States by interfering with or obstructing lawful government functions through deceit, craft or trickery, and by means that are dishonest. Violating the defraud prong may also be accomplished by conspiring to cheat the U.S. government of money or property, or to interfere with its operations. The statute encompasses any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing or defeating the lawful function of any department of the government, and neither the conspiracy’s goal nor the means used to achieve it need to be independently illegal, according to U.S. courts.
In order for a United States Attorney to make a criminal case against a defendant under this law, the prosecutor will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) the defendant entered into an agreement, (2) to obstruct a lawful function of the Government, (3) by deceitful or dishonest means, and (4) committed at least one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.
This law covers any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing or defeating the lawful function of any department of Government. The “defraud” language criminalizes any willful impairment of a legitimate function of government, whether or not the improper acts or objective are criminal under another statute. The word “defraud” not only reaches financial or property loss through the use of a scheme or artifice to defraud but also is designed and intended to protect the integrity of the United States and its agencies, programs and policies. Thus, Federal criminal conspiracy laws reach U.S. Federal election laws.
The United States Supreme Court has defined “defraud” as follows:
To conspire to defraud the United States means primarily to cheat the Government out of property or money, but it also means to interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicane or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention.
The statute is broad enough in its terms to include any conspiracy for the purpose of impairing, obstructing or defeating the lawful function of any department of government . . . (A)ny conspiracy which is calculated to obstruct or impair its efficiency and destroy the value of its operation and reports as fair, impartial and reasonably accurate, would be to defraud the United States by depriving it of its lawful right and duty of promulgating or diffusing the information so officially acquired in the way and at the time required by law or departmental regulation.
The notion of impeding a government function is quite broad and extends to a wide array of deceptive conduct. The statute places no condition on the method used to defraud the United States, and it reaches any “interference or obstruction of a lawful governmental function ‘by deceit, craft or treachery or at least by means that are dishonest. The notion of impeding a government function is quite broad and extends to a wide array of deceptive conduct. The statute places no condition on the method used to defraud the United States, and it reaches any “interference or obstruction of a lawful governmental function ‘by deceit, craft or treachery or at least by means that are dishonest.
