Prosecutions for August 2026
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during August 2026 the government reported 995 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 1.1 percent over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged 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).
When monthly 2026 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-5.9%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 17.2 percent from levels reported in 2021.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The decrease from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in August 2026 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 20.6 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (15.3%), "Project Safe Childhood" (13.6%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (9.5%), "Violence-Other" (6.3%), "Violence-Indian Country" (6%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (3.9%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (3.7%), "Fraud-Other" (3.6%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In August 2026, 251 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in August the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 involving "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A". This was the lead charge for 11.2 percent of all magistrate filings in August.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors" (7.2%), "18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts" (6.8%), "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (6%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In August 2026, 744 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during August there were an additional 148 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during August.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during August 2026 referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 105 1 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 64 2 3 2 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 61 3 2 3 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 47 4 4 4 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 38 5 5 5 More 18 USC 2250 - Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce 36 6 7 16 More 18 USC 113 - Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions 29 7 11 8 More 18 USC 875 - Interstate Communications 23 8 17 22 More 18 USC 2252A - Activity relating material constituting/containing chil 23 8 12 13 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 22 10 8 6 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions — up 33.1 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 113 that involves " Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 176.8 percent — was registered for prosecutions under " Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2250 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 21.1 percent — was " Attempt and conspiracy " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 27.2 percent — was for filings where the lead charge was " Hobbs Act " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1951 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In August 2026 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 314.7 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 prosecutions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago W Virg, N 3,738 29 1 79 84 More D. C. 2,221 13 2 41 1 More S Dakota 1,712 13 3 34 43 More N Mexico 1,521 27 4 19 7 More Okla, N 1,497 14 5 75 5 More Montana 1,372 13 6 20 31 More N Dakota 1,356 9 7 47 57 More Vermont 1,295 7 8 91 86 More N. Y., S 975 43 9 5 10 More Okla, E 959 6 10 63 2 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling) — with 3738 prosecutions as compared with 314.7 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during August 2026.
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) ranked 2nd.
District of South Dakota is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were New Mexico , now ranked 4th , and Montana at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 19th and 20th one year ago and 7th and 31st five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 265.2 percent — was Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling). This was the same district that had the largest increase — 394.1 percent — when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 37.9 percent — was Montana . But over the past five years, Eastern District of Oklahoma (Muskogee) showed the largest drop — 85.4 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during August 2026 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Becerra, Jacqueline Fla, S 29 1 121 - More Gallagher, Gordon P. Colorado 8 2 478 - More Hovland, Daniel L. N Dakota 8 2 207 182 More Payne, Roy S. Texas, E 8 2 - - More Brady, Holly Ann Ind, N 7 5 121 319 More Pitman, Robert Texas, W 7 5 207 22 More Burke, Liles Clifton Ala, N 6 7 172 319 More Barber, Thomas Patrick Fla, M 6 7 52 149 More Winsor, Allen Cothrel Fla, N 6 7 379 625 More Brann, Matthew William Penn, M 6 7 30 8 More Hendrix, James Wesley Texas, N 6 7 24 5 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 1 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings per capita, while the remaining 10 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Jacqueline Becerra in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) ranked 1st with 29 defendants in cases.
Judges Gordon P. Gallagher in the District of Colorado, Daniel L. Hovland in the District of North Dakota and Roy S. Payne in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) ranked 2nd with 8 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: October 27, 2026
