Whether a statement made to FBI agents can be material and knowingly false under 18 U.S.C. §1001(a) when the criminal enterprise underlying the statement was completely fabricated by those same agents

QUESTION PRESENTED As Justice Ginsburg warned in Brogan v. United States, 18 U.S.C. §1001(a) “arms Government agents with authority not simply to apprehend lawbreakers, but to generate felonies, crimes of a kind that only a Government officer could prompt.” 522 U.S. at 409 (Ginsburg, J., concurring in the judgment). This warning was made manifest in the prosecution of Alexander Samuel Smith, whose conviction is based on his failure to recall the truth amongst the web of lies spun by government investigators and undercover contractors. The question presented is: Whether a statement made to FBI agents can be material and knowingly false under 18 U.S.C. §1001(a) when the criminal enterprise underlying the statement was completely fabricated by those same agents. i