The following excerpt is from United States v. Lischewski, 20-10211 (9th Cir. 2021):
1. We review a district court's "formulation of jury instructions for abuse of discretion." United States v. Liew, 856 F.3d 585, 595 (9th Cir. 2017). We review "de novo whether those instructions correctly state the elements of the offense and adequately cover the defendant's theory of the case." Id. at 596. If an instruction is erroneous, we generally "apply harmless error analysis to determine whether an improper instruction constitutes reversible error." United States v. Munguia, 704 F.3d 596, 598 (9th Cir. 2012). If a defendant fails to object with sufficient specificity to a jury instruction, we review for plain error. See United States v. Conti, 804 F.3d 977, 981 (9th Cir. 2015).
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