Under the Hyde Amendment, sanctions may be awarded against the United States if its position in a criminal case is “vexatious, frivolous, or in bad faith.” The issue is being contested in the Supreme Court, where the Governemnt is contending that as long as the prosecutor has gotten a grand jury to indict for probable cause in an ex parte proceeding, no amount of bad faith or prosecutorial abuse can meet the statutory standard.
The ham sandwich epigram is the most familiar comment on prosecutors and grand juries, but my favorite is that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict Abel for killing Cain.