Abouammo v. United States · ¶16

Under that framework, the venue for trying a §1519 offense must be where a document’s falsification happened— which here was in Seattle. Recall the terms of the statute: It imposes criminal liability on a person who knowingly “falsifies” a “record [or] document” “with the intent to impede [or] obstruct” a federal investigation. See supra, at 2, and n. 1. The only prohibited act in that statute is the falsification of a document. Once a person has committed that act (with the requisite intent), he need do nothing more to violate the law. He need not, for example, transmit the document to anyone else, nor must he use it in any particular way. As both Abouammo and the Government agree, the crime is complete upon falsification (again, with the specified intent). See Tr. of Oral Arg. 4–5, 41, 53. And that fact makes the venue inquiry straightforward. Because the only proscribed conduct is…

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