Prosecutions for 2018

Lead Charge: 18 USC 115 - Influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a Federal official

Number Year-to-date 45
Percent Change from previous year 40.6
Percent Change from 5 years ago -8.2
Percent Change from 10 years ago 36.4
Percent Change from 20 years ago -11.8

Table 1: Criminal Prosecutions

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during FY 2018 the government reported 45 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases had a lead charge of "18 USC 115 - Influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a Federal official". According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 40.6% over the past fiscal year when the number of prosecutions totaled 32.

The comparisons of the number of defendants charged with offenses are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (see Table 1).

Compared to five years ago when there were 49, the number of FY 2018 prosecutions of this type is down 8.2 percent. Prosecutions over the past year are still higher than they were ten years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 36.4 percent from the level of 33 reported in 2008 but down 11.8 percent from the level of 51 reported in 1998.

The long term trend in prosecutions for these matters going back to FY 1998 is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded each fiscal year. Each presidential administration is distinguished by the color of the bars. To view trends month-by-month rather than year-by-year, see TRAC's monthly report series for the latest data.

Bar chart of shortyear

Figure 1: Criminal Prosecutions over the last 20 years

Leading Program Areas

Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types. The single largest number of prosecutions of these matters through September 2018 was for "National Internal Security/Terrorism", accounting for 4.4 percent of prosecutions.

The second largest number of matters were Prosecutions filed under the program area of "White Collar Crime " (2.2%) .

Leading Investigative Agencies

The lead investigative agency for prosecutions through September 2018 was "Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation" accounting for 33.3 percent of prosecutions referred.

As shown in Figure 3, additional agencies with substantial numbers of referrals were: Justice - US Marshals Service (20%), "Other - Social Security Administration" (11.1%), "Homeland Security - Other" (8.9%), "Postal Service" (4.4%). The "Other" category in Figure 3 is comprised of a diverse group of agencies. The agencies with substantial numbers of within the "Other" category were: Veterans Administration" (4.4%), "Interior" (2.2%), "Justice - Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms," (2.2%), "Justice - Other" (2.2%), "Other - State/Local Authorities" (2.2%).

Pie chart of proggrplabel

Figure 2: Specific types of prosecutions
Pie chart of agengrp

Figure 3: Prosecutions by Investigative Agency

Top Ranked Judicial Districts

Understandably, there is great variation in the number of prosecutions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts. The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions of this type during the first twelve months of FY 2018 are shown in Table 3.

Judicial District Count Rank  
Arizona 3 1 More
Ala, S 2 2 More
Cal, C 2 2 More
Iowa, S 2 2 More
N. Y., S 2 2 More
Ohio, S 2 2 More
Tenn, E 2 2 More
Texas, W 2 2 More
Virg, E 2 2 More
Ark, W 1 10 More
Cal, E 1 10 More
Cal, N 1 10 More
Cal, S 1 10 More
Conn 1 10 More
Fla, S 1 10 More
Ga, N 1 10 More
Ill, N 1 10 More
Ken, W 1 10 More
Mich, E 1 10 More
Mich, W 1 10 More
Mo, E 1 10 More
N. J. 1 10 More
N. Y., E 1 10 More
N. Y., W 1 10 More
Nebraska 1 10 More
Okla, E 1 10 More
Oregon 1 10 More
S Dakota 1 10 More
Texas, E 1 10 More
W Virg, N 1 10 More
Wash, E 1 10 More
Wash, W 1 10 More
Wyoming 1 10 More

Table 2: Top 10 districts

  • The District of Arizona—with 3 prosecutions—was the most active through September 2018.

  • The Southern District of Alabama (Mobile), Central District of California (Los Angeles), Southern District of Iowa (Des Moines), Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati), Eastern District of Tennessee (Knoxville), Western District of Texas (San Antonio) and Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria) ranked 2nd.

Report Generated: March 21, 2019
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