Under the Massiah rule, statements elicited by a government informant from a defendant after formal charges are filed are

• A. Admissible.
• B. Inadmissible.
• C. Admissible only if the informant is a private citizen.
• D. Admissible only if the victim testifies.

Answer: (B)

Massiah prohibits the government from deliberately eliciting statements from a defendant after formal charges are filed, through a government informant or covert agent, when counsel has not been present. Once charges are brought, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches, and the defendant cannot be subjected to questioning by the government in this post-charge, elicitation setup. If a government informant works to obtain self-incriminating statements from the defendant after indictment, those statements are inadmissible because they were procured through deliberate government-initiated elicitation in violation of the right to counsel. The rule focuses on government involvement and the post-charge context, not on private citizens or on other witnesses necessarily. Thus, the statements are inadmissible.