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Case 22-1426, Document 59, 02/28/2023, 3475902, Page35 of 113
no such promise was made. See 405 U.S. 150, 154 (1972) (“The prosecutor’s
office is an entity and as such it is the spokesman for the Government. A promise
made by one attorney must be attributed, for these purposes, to the Government’’)
(citing Restatement (Second) of Agency § 272). These premises are inconsistent
with the notion that a federal prosecutor in one district has no obligation to honor
promises made by his or her counterpart in another.
It is thus unsurprising that few courts outside of this Circuit have found
Annabi persuasive. Indeed, Defendant is not aware of any published authority
from another circuit that follows Annabi in holding that an ambiguous promise
made in a plea agreement by one USAO is presumed not to bind other USAOs. To
the contrary, the weight of authority holds that a representation by the United
States Attorney’s Office or its agents will bind USAOs in other districts. See
Gebbie, 294 F.3d at 550 (“[W]hen a United States Attorney negotiates and
contracts on behalf of ‘the United States’ or ‘the Government’ in a plea agreement
. that attorney speaks for and binds all of his or her fellow United States
Attorneys with respect to those same crimes and those same defendants. ... United
States Attorneys should not be viewed as sovereigns of autonomous fiefdoms.’’);
U.S. v. Van Thournout, 100 F.3d 590, 594 (8th Cir. 1996) (“Absent an express
limitation, any promises made by an [AUSA] in one district will bind an [AUSA]
in another district”); Margalli-Olvera v. I.N.S., 43 F.3d 345, 353 (8th Cir. 1994)
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Dates
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00021082.jpg |
| File Size | 689.8 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.7% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 1,640 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 20:07:01.085177 |