FBI Referrals for Criminal Prosecution Down in May 2026

Published Aug 10, 2026

The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during May 2026 the government reported receiving 1,997 new referrals for criminal prosecution from the Federal Bureau of​​ Investigation (FBI). According to case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down from 2,567 referrals in March and 2,413 in April. See Figure 1.

 FBI criminal referrals made up one out of six (16%) of all criminal referrals U.S. Attorney Offices recorded receiving in May. This proportion referred by the FBI has been declining. It is down from 18 percent in FY 2025 and 22 percent in FY 2024. ​​These comparisons of the number of suspects referred by the FBI are based on case-by-case information recently obtained as a direct result of lengthy successful litigation by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act.

Prosecutions and Convictions

​​​In May 2026, U.S. Attorneys acted on 1,685 FBI referrals they had received, charging 961 defendants or 57 percent with crimes in U.S. district courts and closing 724 FBI referrals without prosecution.

A total of 678 defendants were convicted in May in cases the FBI had previously referred and federal prosecutors had prosecuted. This was down from ​​946 convictions in FBI referrals in March and 868 convictions in April. The median prison sentence in May was 60 months. This sentence length varies slightly from month to month but has ranged in this general vicinity. The median sentence, for example, in FY 2025 was 57 months.

FBI-led investigations involve a diverse array of offenses given the agency’s wide jurisdiction. During May 2026, the largest number of convictions were for drug offenses. In second place were convictions under the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood (PSC) program. This initiative commonly convicted individuals for sexual exploitation of children under 18 USC 2251, material involving sexual exploitation of minors under 18 USC 2252, and violations of child pornography provisions of 18 USC 2252A.

In general, it takes on average several years between receipt of a criminal referral and reaching either sentencing or a ​​not-guilty verdict in court. In May 2026, U.S. attorneys reported taking an average 746 days for this complete process.

Judicial Districts Where FBI Criminal Actions are Concentrated

In general, FBI-led investigations resulting in convictions tend to show higher concentrations in many rural districts. Table 1 below lists the top ten federal judicial districts for FBI-led conviction numbers in May, along with comparative rankings for earlier time periods. Excluding territories, there are a total of 90 judicial districts in the United States.

At the top of the list in Table 1 was Alaska. In May 2026, the U.S. ​​Attorney’s Office in Alaska reported more individuals convicted in FBI-led investigations relative to its population size – over twelve (12) times the national average -- than in any other federal district. In addition, the sheer number of fifteen (15) FBI-led convictions in Alaska that month also placed that state among the top ten judicial districts with the most convictions where the FBI was the lead investigative agency. In five of the past months, Alaska has had ​​above-average FBI-led per capita conviction numbers.

In second place during May was Montana, with over six (6) times the FBI-led conviction numbers relative to its population size. Montana has also been consistently above the national average. In fact, examining all of FY 2026 thus far, Montana topped every other judicial district in its per capita FBI-led conviction numbers. The Montana U.S. ​​Attorney’s Office reported a total of 134 convictions. This number was over six (6) times the national per capita convictions during all of FY 2026 (October 2025 – May 2026).