What started as an NBA investigation into an alleged salary-cap violation has reportedly drawn the attention of federal prosecutors, opening a consequential new chapter in the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard saga with the potential for criminal charges.

The New York Times reported late Thursday evening that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a probe into the situation. The investigation is in its most preliminary stages and is being led by the Eastern District of New York, the report said; that’s the same district overseeing the gambling and poker scandals that have ensnared the likes of Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups, as well as Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz. A representative for the EDNY said in an email to Front Office Sports they “can’t confirm or deny any investigation,” and the NBA declined to comment.

Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney at Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP, has a word of advice to anyone connected to the Clippers who are part of the investigation: lawyer up.

“To the extent this hasn’t already happened, each of the Clippers owners and employees who are part of the investigation almost certainly need their own lawyers,” he tells FOS. 

Another word of advice: “do not talk to the press.”

That opinion is shared by former DOJ trial attorney Michael Weinstein, who now works at law firm Cole Schotz. He says it’s time to “batten down the hatches.”

“Everything the Clippers were threatening to do, thumping their chest and going after the NBA to be disruptive and challenge the report, their lawyers are likely telling them, ‘hold on, let’s sit tight,’” Weinstein says. “If they go on offense against the NBA, everything they do becomes fodder for the government in its investigation.”

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