Janan

Janan v. United States

Good Law
325 F. App'x 551
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitApril 30, 2009No. 08-55425California365 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Mustafa Janan (“Janan”) appeals a district court order holding him in contempt for his refusal to provide voice exemplars in accordance with a grand jury subpoena. The parties are familiar with the facts of this case, which we repeat here only to the extent necessary to explain our decision. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1826 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We apply contract principles to the interpretation of a proffer agreement and review de novo alleged violations of a proffer agreement. United States v. Chiu, 109 F.3d 624, 625 (9th Cir.1997). We affirm.

The proffer agreement (“the Agreement”) between Janan and the U.S. Attorney is not ambiguous. The Agreement explicitly states that the government is precluded from directly offering Janan’s statements against him only in its case-in-chief. We have held that similarly worded agreements confer only direct use immunity. Id. at 626 . Janan’s attempt to distinguish Chiu on the ground that Janan is a witness, rather than a defendant, is not persuasive. As in Chiu , the government here has not used Janan’s statements against him in its case-in-chief.

We reject Janan’s invitation to adopt an expansive definition of the…

Sign in to read the full opinion

Create a free account to read the complete opinion text, citation history, and good-law status for this case.