The Nickel Report

A recent federal court decision determined that documents created by a criminal defendant using AI and subsequently shared with legal counsel were not shielded by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine. In USA v. Heppner, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York compelled the disclosure of 31 documents created with Anthropic’s Claude. This order was issued despite the defendant including information from counsel in the AI tool’s input and later providing the resulting outputs to his attorneys. The ruling offers early judicial perspective on privilege concerns involving AI-generated materials, an area where case law remains sparse.

On July 23, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued three key Executive Orders (the AI Executive Orders) simultaneously with the release of Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan (AI Action Plan). Building on earlier executive actions, the AI Action Plan sets forth three pillars that outline the Administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) industrial policy: (1) accelerate innovation; (2) build American AI infrastructure; and (3) lead in international AI diplomacy and security.