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Comment by schoolornot | Hacker News Reader

I'm having a really hard time understanding the legalese around these charges.

In 2014 Uber was hacked and the FTC opened an investigation In 2016 Uber was hacked again but Sullivan supposedly didn't disclose this to the FTC

* Why would he be compelled to disclose information to the FTC about an incident unrelated to the one being investigated?

* The charge of "Misprision of felony" is new to me: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4

Since when does anyone have an obligation to report felonies to law enforcement? If I overhear some kids planning to burglarize a house, I have a legal obligation to report that? Isn't freedom of speech involved here?

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For example, if you are an executive in a public company and pay out some money to criminals and conceal the event from the public, that's a essentially fraud because you're doing it with someone else's (the public investors) money while lying to them. Company officers have all kinds of legal obligations to be truthful to the owners and not mislead them, and in the case of publicly traded companies, that applies to the general public.

Regarding the misprision of felony, the statute says "actual commission of a felony", so kids planning to burglarize a house does not count, but if you know that they have committed a felony (kids breaking&entering into a house is not necessarily a felony), then this statute would apply.

The commanding word in the misprision statute is conceals. Failing to report alone isn't enough, you need active concealment.

Wouldn’t sexual harassment settlements between two private parties violate this?

If someone is attacked and they accept money not to press charges, isn’t that concealing a crime to authorities?

Sexual harassment is not a felony. It’s a violation of a civil right, which is not necessarily criminal. Relief for this is typically found in civil courts and settlements are encouraged by the judicial system.

Covering up a rape, however, would be one of the elements of misprision of a felony, although this would be on a state by state basis since rape and other sexual and violent crimes are typically violations of state and not federal law.

> If I overhear some kids planning to burglarize a house, I have a legal obligation to report that?

No, because you did not become aware of the commission of a felony. If you overheard those same kids discussing a murder they had committed, yes, you are legally liable if you sit on that.

Isn’t this common knowledge?

This is neither common knowledge, nor intuitive.

There’s a famous YouTube video of a law professor encouraging people to never talk to the police.

Civics classes regularly tell students they have an absolute right to stay silent.

The idea that US citizens have an obligation to report crimes is not obvious, and sounds like “compelled speech.“

If this is true, I find it shocking. I thought I had an almost infinite right to keep my mouth shut, and the exceptions involved a judge telling me “you must answer the question” - or at least signing a warrant.

I’ve looked into this. It’s indeed a crime, but heavily criticized one. Most legal systems have abolished or narrowed it. It’s under (very light) fire from legal scholars.

It’s not archaic - US federal prosecutors still use it. But they insist that the accused actively participated in covering up the crime. Or, at least, had a special obligation to report.

So this isn’t obvious or well known, and probably is a good candidate for reform.

Attorney here! (Not legal advice; consult licensed counsel in your state if you need legal advice.)

You’re missing an element of the crime. Here are the elements according to the Ninth Circuit, which is the jurisdiction in which Sullivan is being charged.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 4, “the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt: ‘(1) that the principal . . . committed and completed the felony alleged; (2) that the defendant had full knowledge of that fact; (3) that he failed to notify the authorities; and (4) that he took affirmative steps to conceal the crime of the principal.”

So merely failing to report a felony, even one you directly witnessed, does not give rise to a criminal act under the law. Otherwise every witness to a a crime could be considered a criminal if they didn’t report it. You have to engage in some act of concealment as well.

Excuse me, I did not get it. Is burglary not a felony? Is it about past vs. future?

The distinction comes down to whether something rises to the level of conspiracy, if you were hypothetically aware of a crime before it was committed. Beside that, however, burglary in the United States is not a federal felony, which is the specific charge being discussed here.

I shared a general legal principle. If you become aware of the commission of a felony and leave a significant amount of evidence showing that you intended to conceal it, it’s absolutely open and shut, and you will be treated as an accomplice. All Americans have a duty, whether they like it or not, to disclose commission of a crime for investigation. Failure to do so can lead to liability down one of several paths. This is one of them.

Freedom of speech is completely irrelevant.

Past vs future.

Matt Levine explains it well by summarizing that in the US. "Everything is security fraud".

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