Pursuant to his conditional guilty plea, Jones submitted to an interview by FBI agents and provided a detailed statement regarding his involvement in trafficking cocaine in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the statement could not be used against Jones “unless the defendant violates the terms of this agreement.” J.A. at 134. In his trial following the withdrawal of his guilty plea, the District Court allowed prosecutors to introduce Jones's FBI statement against him. Since neither of Jones's arguments provides a basis for suppressing the FBI statement, the District Court's decision to admit it was not in error.

As discussed in the previous section, when Jones withdrew his guilty plea, the plea agreement was nullified. Further, the agreement itself allowed the government to use the statement against Jones if he violated the terms of the agreement. Withdrawing his guilty plea, while completely within Jones's rights, did violate the express terms of the plea agreement, freeing the government of its contractual obligation not to use his statement against him. If Jones wanted to prevent the government from using his statement against him, he could have attempted to negotiate a provision in the plea agreement that barred use of the statement against him after a successful appeal. Alternatively, Jones could have pled guilty conditionally and chosen not to cooperate with the government. Instead, he chose to provide a statement to the government that could be used against him in the event of a successful appeal.

[4] Jones also argues that admitting his FBI statement violated Federal Rule of Evidence 410. Rule 410(3) prohibits the admission of statements “made in the course of” plea negotiations. The case law is clear that statements made to authorities pursuant to cooperation plea agreements are not protected because they are not “made in the course of plea discussions.” United States v. Marks, 209 F.3d 577, 582 (6th Cir.2000) (noting that Rule 410 was amended to overrule cases that had construed the rule more liberally). As in Marks, Jones provided information to the government pursuant to a cooperation plea agreement. Since these statements were made after and in furtherance of the plea agreement, they are not protected by Rule 410.



U.S. v. Jones  469 F.3d 563, *567 (C.A.6 (Tenn.),2006)