In Abouammo v. United States, 608 U.S. ---, No. 25-5146 (2026), a unanimous Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's judgment and held, "a defendant charged with violating §1519 must be tried in the district where the falsification occurred; he cannot be tried in a different district where the investigation was located." Here is some of the key language:
Venue in criminal cases mattered more than might be supposed to the Nation’s Founders.As a result, the Constitution not once but “twice safeguards the defendant’s venue right.” United States v. Cabrales, 524 U. S. 1, 6 (1998). Article III instructs that “Trial of all Crimes” shall “be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed.” §2, cl. 3. And the Sixth Amendment reinforces that command, entitling criminal defendants to a jury “of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”To implement that constitutional rule—meaning, to decide where the crime was committed—courts generally must determine the location of the offense’s “essential conduct elements.”Under that framework, the venue for trying a §1519 offense must be where a document’s falsification happened— which here was in Seattle.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.Contrary to the Ninth Circuit’s view, §1519’s special intent provision does not lead to a different result. This Court has never looked to a statute’s mens rea elements in considering venue. Nor would it make much sense to do so. Take the first (and more typical) of §1519’s mens rea requirements: that the falsification be undertaken “knowingly.” A knowing falsification occurs at the same place as an unknowing falsification—which is to say, at the place of the falsification. The mens rea element thus adds nothing to the conduct-focused analysis. The same is true of §1519’s demand that the falsification be done with the intent to obstruct an investigation.Section 1519 prohibits only one act: that of falsifying a document. Because the Government need show nothing else, a §1519 offense is relatively easy to prove. But with that ease comes one cost: Because the Government need show nothing else, its venue options are confined. The trial for falsifying a document must take place where the defendant falsified the document. Here that was in Seattle—meaning in venue terms, the Western District of Washington. The trial should not have occurred in the Northern District of California because no “conduct constituting the offense” happened in that location.
