When someone is “indicted” it means they have been charged with a crime, usually in federal court. Indictment is a term which references the charging document in a federal criminal case. The charging document informs the accused what federal offenses he or she is accused of.

To obtain an indictment, a federal prosecutor (an Assistant United States Attorney) presents evidence to a federal grand jury. Once the grand jury finds probable cause that a crime has been committed and the accused has committed that crime, the grand jury will return an indictment, which is also known as a “true bill”.