How this page differs from the national FBI page
The national FBI investigations page describes the Bureau, the kinds of cases it handles, the two laws that apply when someone lies to agents or interferes with a witness, and what to do first. Use it for the general picture. This page deals with what is specific to California: the district that controls your matter, the nearby FBI field office, the prosecutor's office that decides on charges, the jury instructions used in a California courtroom, and the help a defense lawyer gives before any charge.
In short, the agents are federal, but the court is local. Their federal reach follows them anywhere in the state, yet any case lands in one California district, in front of a federal judge based in California, under Ninth Circuit rules. Those local details affect what comes next.
What FBI contact means, and what a lawyer does at this stage
FBI contact at this stage usually means one of a few things. Agents knock on your door, leave a card, call you, or ask you to come in for a voluntary interview. They may execute a search, serve a subpoena, or send a letter saying you are a target. None of these means you have been charged. All of them mean a federal investigation has your name in it, and what you do in the next days can matter as much as anything that comes later.
At this stage, a defense lawyer acts as a buffer, a record keeper, and an early reader of your case. The lawyer handles every contact, which ends the agents' direct calls to you. The lawyer tells you what to leave alone: statements, consent searches, deleted messages, tidied books, and calls urging others to stay quiet. The lawyer measures your risk under the false-statement and tampering laws covered below, checks what any warrant or subpoena really demands, and opens a line to the prosecutor's office, since prosecutors, not agents, decide on charges. The Justice Manual sets the test prosecutors use to decide whether to bring a case, and our California Federal Investigation Lawyer page quotes it in full.
Agents have no power to file or dismiss a case. Because of that, any discussion of cooperation should go through your lawyer, who can check whether an offer is genuine and put it in writing. For the wider picture of how California's federal courts are organized, see our California federal courts hub.
Finding your California district
California is split into four federal districts: Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southern. The split comes from 28 U.S.C. section 84, which is also the source of the court cities. For the statute's exact text, see our California Federal Search Warrant Lawyer page.
Where your matter would be filed decides which district handles it, and that does not change as the investigation moves along. If agents built the case in Los Angeles, it belongs to the Central District. If they built it in Sacramento, it belongs to the Eastern District. Moving a case to another district is uncommon and needs a specific legal reason. So check which district your papers name.
That same statute fixes where each district holds court, so your papers will tell you which city to expect for any appearance. The cities are listed in the FAQ above.
Match the city in your papers to a district page: the Southern District for San Diego, the Central District for Los Angeles or Santa Ana, the Northern District for San Francisco, Oakland, or San Jose, and the Eastern District for Sacramento or Fresno.
A later appeal would not leave the region. It goes to the court of appeals that covers the district where the case was heard, which for California is the Ninth Circuit.
An appeal argues that the court made a legal mistake, and its deadlines are strict and run from the date of judgment. Our federal appeals page explains more.
Who decides charges and who investigates, by office
A separate United States Attorney's Office handles each of the four districts, and its prosecutors, not the agents, decide whether you are charged.
The offices cover different ground. The Central District's serves seven counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside. The Northern District's reaches from Del Norte County to Monterey County. The Southern District's covers San Diego and Imperial Counties and has its main office in San Diego. The Eastern District's represents the federal government in nearly all litigation involving the United States there. Each office's own description is quoted in full on our California Federal Investigation Lawyer page.
Your lawyer uses the district to decide which office to contact first, since that office makes the charging call described earlier.
The FBI has 56 field offices, which it also calls divisions, in major cities nationwide, including Puerto Rico, and it describes them as where investigations are carried out. The Bureau's own wording is quoted on our California Federal Search Warrant Lawyer page.
In California, the Bureau lists field offices in San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, plus smaller resident agencies in towns and cities around them. Los Angeles is one of only three offices, along with Washington, D.C., and New York City, led by an assistant director in charge rather than a special agent in charge, because of its size.
An investigation run from Los Angeles comes from one of the Bureau's biggest offices. Your rights are no different there, but the size hints at the resources behind the case, and it is one reason that early counsel is a sensible step rather than an overreaction.
Two laws that punish what you do after contact
Two federal statutes can reach your conduct after agents show up. Each is charged apart from whatever first drew the agents' interest, so it helps to know what they cover.
Section 1001 covers false statements made to federal investigators. In short, it reaches anyone who knowingly and willfully makes a materially false statement in a federal matter. Our false statements page goes through the statute in detail.
You do not need to be under oath, and you do not need to sign anything. A spoken denial in your living room can count. The statement has to be material, and it has to be made knowingly and willfully. The ordinary penalty is up to 5 years in prison.
An 8-year ceiling applies in terrorism cases and in matters tied to certain sex offenses. These numbers are the most the law allows, not a forecast of what would happen to you. Ordinary section 1001 cases are scored under guideline 2B1.1. Its base level is 7 only when the offense of conviction has a 20-year maximum or more, so a standard 5-year case starts at level 6, before loss and other increases. The 8-year variants use guideline 2J1.2 instead.
For how the sentencing hearing itself works, see our federal sentencing page.
Section 1512 punishes witness tampering and obstruction. Its core reads:
"Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person"
with intent to influence or prevent testimony, cause records to be withheld, or block reports to law enforcement, including one clause that covers the quiet word to a friend:
"hinder, delay, or prevent the communication to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States of information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense"
The records-destruction clause punishes anyone who:
"alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding"
and the catch-all reaches anyone who:
"otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,"
for which the statute provides:
"shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both."
Wiping messages, concealing records, steering a witness, or telling someone to keep quiet can put a second, separate charge of up to 20 years on the table, beyond the original inquiry. Our witness tampering page covers this offense. Leave everything as it is. Your lawyer will decide what has to be handed over and in what way.
Obstruction sentences are scored under guideline 2J1.2, which sets this starting point:
"Base Offense Level: 14"
Increases can be added on top of that starting point. Causing or threatening injury or property damage to obstruct justice adds 8 levels.
A finding that the offense seriously interfered with how justice is administered adds 3 levels.
Two more levels can apply where the conduct involved destroying or inventing records on a large scale, or was extensive in planning. If the obstruction hid a separate crime, the guideline can instead point to that hidden offense when it yields a higher level. Every case turns on its facts. A judge treats these levels as a starting point, and they do not predict your result.
What a California jury would be told
Should a misstep after FBI contact be tried in California, jurors would be given the Ninth Circuit's own model instructions. Its obstruction instruction, revised in June 2021, names two things the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt: that the defendant interfered or tried to interfere with the administration of justice, and that the defendant acted with a corrupt purpose. The instruction's wording is quoted in full on our California Federal Search Warrant Lawyer page.
The instruction's comment also explains the word corruptly, and it turns on the reason behind the act.
Someone who acts for an honest reason lacks that purpose and does not meet the element. The government still does not have to show that obstruction was the only motive.
One more point in the comment matters for anyone who spoke to agents, and it concerns false statements.
Put simply, prosecutors must show that a false statement actually mattered, not only that it was said. Whether it mattered depends on what the agents were trying to decide at the time. That is another reason to say nothing until counsel has shaped the record.
What to do now
Move quickly, and keep your words few. Decline any meeting with agents until a lawyer is with you, whether they show up at your door or invite you in. Say no to any request to search your computer, phone, car, or home. Do not put your version of events in an email or text. Leave money, documents, books, and messages exactly as they are, and do not ask anyone else to change theirs. A cover-up is often easier to prove than the original offense, and as the guideline levels above show, it raises a sentence.
Collect paper instead. Keep whatever the agents left behind, such as cards, subpoenas, search paperwork, and receipts for property they took. If a target letter comes, hold on to the envelope and write down the date. If a grand jury subpoena comes, record the return date and do not destroy anything it describes. After a search under a search warrant, keep the inventory the agents left. Privately write a timeline of each contact: who came, when, what they asked, and what you said. Note the district and city in any papers. If you must appear in court, plan to arrive early, since security at the larger California courthouses can be slow at busy times.
After that, talk to a lawyer before making any decision. Choices about an interview, handing over records, cooperating, or staying silent depend on facts you cannot judge alone this early: what the agents already know, what the prosecutor's office thinks, and how your words could change things. A lawyer can help you weigh each choice. The penalties on this page are legal maximums or guideline ranges. They do not predict what will happen to you. People contacted in the same investigation can end up in very different places, partly because of how each behaved after contact.