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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 681-1 Filed 06/26/22 Page4of7 Under the CVRA’s plain language, “a party may qualify as a victim, even though [she] may not have been the target of the crime, as long as [she] suffers harm as a result of the crime’s commission.” Jn re Fisher, 640 F.3d 645, 648 (Sth Cir. 2011) (“Fisher IP’). Thus, the CVRA “instructs the district court to look at the offense itself only to determine the harmful effects the offense has on parties.” Jn re Wellcare Health Plans, Inc., 754 F.3d 1234, 1239 (11th Cir. 2014) (cleaned up). Because of this requirement to identify an offense’s “harmful effects,” numerous CVRA “victim” cases have found it necessary to look beyond the narrow “record” of the charges themselves. See, e.g., In re Fisher, 649 F.3d 401, 403-04 (Sth Cir. 2011) (collecting cases) (“Fisher IP’). An instructive case comes from the D.C. Circuit, which reversed a district court decision denying “victim” status in a drug trafficking case. The Circuit explained that in determining whether a decedent’s family had CVRA “victim” status, the district court erred by “limit[ing] its evaluation to the indictment and the statement of facts submitted by [the defendant] as part of his negotiated plea agreement.” Jn re de Henriquez, No. 15-3054, 2015 WL 10692637, at *1 (D.C. Cir. 2015). The Circuit noted that “[uJnder the CVRA, victims may participate in proceedings even when there has been no formal charge.” /d. (citing 18 U.S.C. § 3771(a)(9) (victims have the right to timely notice of a deferred prosecution agreement)). Moreover, “[b]ecause victim status can be argued for even prior to the filing of an indictment, it is clear that Congress intended courts to look beyond the four corners of an indictment or plea agreement. For example, in the context of the [drug trafficking] conspiracy here, neither the indictment nor the statement of facts included in the plea agreement mention violence of any kind. And yet, logic allows for the inference . . . that [the defendant’s] paramilitary organization . . . employed violence and force as part of its method of operation.” Jd. DOJ-OGR-00010740