The prospect remains that an overzealous prosecutor or investigator — aware that a person has committed some suspicious acts, but unable to make a criminal case — will create a crime by surprising the subject, asking about those acts, and receiving a false denial. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
wrote in a concurring opinion in Brogan v. United States (1996), warning against the ‘sweeping generality’ of Section 1001’s language, foreshadowing what happened in the Martha Stewart case.