Unlike most if not all of the other plea agreements in which the defendants are free to argue for a lesser sentence than the one recommended by the prosecutors, these agreements are pursuant to Rule 11 ©(1)© where the judge gets to agree with the sentence the parties agreed on or reject it. If he rejects it, the defendants can withdraw their guilty pleas. The judge can give a lesser sentence -- but the defendants can't ask for one, it has to be something the Judge decides to do.

In other words, while they can't explictly ask the judge for probation or home detention, they can file lengthy sentencing briefs with letters from friends, relatives, community leaders, etc. detailing their philanthropic contributions and pointing out the danger of a lengthier prison sentence would be due to the coronavirus, and hope the judge decides on his own to impose home detention in lieu of prison. Their plea agreements say they won't have to serve any sentence until at least 90 days after sentencing. Sentencings don't take place until at least 10 weeks after the plea. So they have at least 160 days, or at least until November before they would have to report.

Most of the Plea Agreements and Charging Documents are available here.

Here's how the case escalated, with the government adding more charges for those that refused their earlier plea overtures.

• Complaint
• Original Indictment