Background

• Defendant Biagi moves to reconsider the court's willfulness standard in campaign-finance violations.
• Defendants are charged with illegally soliciting and reimbursing employee contributions to Hillary Clinton's 2006 Senate Campaign and 2008 Presidential Campaign.
• Counts Two and Three allege making contributions in the name of another in violation of 2 U.S.C. § 441f and 18 U.S.C. § 2.
• The court previously applied the intermediate Bryan standard for willfulness, not the Cheek/Ratzlaf heightened standard.
• Biagi sought reconsideration after the Fourth Circuit mandate; government opposed; motions briefed with supplemental filings.
• The court denies the motion, reaffirming that Bryan is the correct standard for willfulness in this case.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Bryan v. United States, 524 U.S. 184 (Supreme Court 1998) (established intermediate willfulness standard requiring knowledge of unlawfulness)
• United States v. George, 386 F.3d 383 (2d Cir. 2004) (limits Cheek/Ratzlaf to rare, highly technical statutes)
• U.S. v. Kay, 513 F.3d 432 (5th Cir. 2007) (recognizes narrow application of heightened standard outside tax/antistructuring contexts)
• United States v. Starnes, 583 F.3d 196 (3d Cir. 2009) (backpedals from broader use of Cheek/Ratzlaf outside tax contexts)
• Carter v. United States, 530 U.S. 255 (Supreme Court 2000) (safeguards against reading into statutes a broader mens rea than necessary)
• Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135 (Supreme Court 1994) (heightened willfulness standard for tax and related contexts)
• Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192 (Supreme Court 1991) (heightened mens rea for certain obscure statutes)
• United States v. Curran, 20 F.3d 560 (3d Cir. 1994) (earlier campaign-finance context applying stricter mens rea)
• United States v. O’Donnell, 608 F.3d 546 (9th Cir. 2010) (FECA disclosure goals inform willfulness analysis)