United States v. Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

This case presents a Sixth Amendment challenge to the application of the criminal forfeiture provisions of the Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) statute, 21 U.S. C. § 853, to defense attorneys’ fees. Ap-pellee Caplin & Drysdale contends that forfeiture of attorneys’ fees violates the Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel. We reject this challenge because there is no established Sixth Amendment right to pay an attorney with the illicit proceeds of drug transactions. The difficult policy choices posed by application of the forfeiture statutes to…