Under Federal Criminal Procedure Rule 16, the defense must only provide the prosecution with the names of expert witnesses and their statements ahead of trial if it has asked the prosecution to do the same. If the defense does not move the prosecution to disclose its expert witnesses, the defendant's expert witnesses may remain undisclosed too, or so the rule says.

In Storm's case, the prosecution asked the court to order reciprocal disclosure, absent of any request made by the defense – a misapplication of the law, the defense argued, pointing to Storm's right to preserve the confidentiality of his defense strategy, which Judge Failla dismissed as “gamesmanship” and “parlor tricks.”