Justice Department May Have Something Big in the Works: Over 9,000 Sealed Indictments

Since late October, more than 9,000 sealed indictments have been filed in districts across the United States. Sealed indictments are typically used in prosecuting individuals or criminal networks in cases where revealing names could lead individuals to flee or destroy evidence.

As of Dec. 22, 2017, there were 9,294 sealed indictments, according to data collected by researchers and gathered from the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) service of the federal judiciary. This includes 1,224 in the central district of California, which includes Los Angeles; 194 in Washington; and 248 in the southern district of New York.

The number of indictments filed in less than three months is in stark contrast to previous years. According to a 2009 report from the Federal Judicial Center, in all of 2006, there were only 1,077 sealed indictments, and these were about 0.96 percent of all criminal cases that year.

According to Marc Ruskin, a former FBI undercover agent and author of “The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI,” it’s unclear whether the current sealed indictments are connected, but the high number is something he never saw in his 27 years as an agent.

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