The feds have a 98 percent conviction rate and beating them isn’t easy.
The charges are piled on and you need an expensive lawyer or team of lawyers to fight them.
From what I’ve seen in the last four years your name has to be Bundy to beat the federal prosecutors who in Case 1 in Oregon lost to a fighting lawyer who got tackled and tased by the federal marshals right after the not guilty verdicts in the courtroom.
Then in Bundy Case 2 in Nevada Bunkerville the feds withheld the evidence from defense lawyers proving their innocence. Mistrial and dismissal of charges with prejudice.
When looking at that 98% conviction rate, I wonder how many are as a result of plea deals and how many from full trial. Genuinely don’t know. But I’d guess a pretty massive amount of counted convictions came before and without an actual trial. Stacked charges and financial burden, coupled with offering sentences of 80-90% less simply for agreeing NOT to go to trial would certainly elevate conviction rates that would otherwise be lower.
The feds can outspend you by billions. The Michael Flynn case shows that the feds have almost unlimited power and resources.