Brogan v. United States

James Brogan (defendant) had accepted cash payments from a real estate company, but when IRS and Department of Labor agents came to his home investigating the company, he falsely denied ever receiving cash from it. A jury convicted him of making a false statement to a federal agent, and the Second Circuit affirmed. Brogan appealed, arguing that many courts of appeals had recognized an "exculpatory no" exception to the false-statements statute and that punishing a simple denial conflicted with the spirit of the Fifth Amendment.