Prosecutions for January 2025
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during January 2025 the government reported 861 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 down 5.7 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 2025 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was only slightly up (1%). 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 13.4 percent from levels reported in 2020.
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 January 2025 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 32.5 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Project Safe Childhood" (10.1%), "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (8.4%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (7.8%), "Violence-Indian Country" (5%), "Violence-Other" (4.4%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (4.2%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (3.3%), "Bank Robbery" (2.2%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.1%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In January 2025, 112 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 January the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 involving "Firearms; Unlawful acts". This was the lead charge for 11.6 percent of all magistrate filings in January.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act" (8%), "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (6.3%), "18 USC 111 - Assaulting, resisting, impeding certain officers" (5.4%), "18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors" (5.4%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In January 2025, 749 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during January there were an additional 115 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 January.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during January 2025 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 65 1 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 56 2 2 3 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 44 3 4 4 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 36 4 3 2 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 35 5 5 7 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 28 7 15 17 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 18 8 8 5 More 18 USC 2250 - Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce 16 9 12 14 More 18 USC 2252A - Activity relating material constituting/containing chil 15 10 11 9 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 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Fraud by wire, radio, or television" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343. "Fraud by wire, radio, or television" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343 was ranked 4 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions — up 65.1 percent — compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 2250 that involves " Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase — 84 percent — was registered for prosecutions under "Other US Code Section " (Title U.S.C Section ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago — down 36.2 percent — was " Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 52.2 percent — was for filings where the lead charge was " Bank robbery and incidental crimes " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In January 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 309.6 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 D. C. 4,418 25 1 1 26 More N Dakota 2,908 19 2 20 61 More Montana 2,860 27 3 35 41 More Ga, S 2,748 38 4 77 54 More Ark, E 1,531 21 5 31 15 More Alaska 1,367 8 6 57 70 More S Dakota 1,060 8 7 52 61 More Okla, N 975 9 8 27 51 More Nebraska 970 16 9 39 26 More W Virg, S 853 6 10 50 45 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) — with 4418 prosecutions as compared with 309.6 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during January 2025. The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) was ranked 1 a year ago.
The District of North Dakota ranked 2nd.
District of Montana is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were North Dakota , now ranked 2nd , and Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa) at 8th In the same order, these districts ranked 20th and 27th one year ago and 61st and 51st five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 160 percent — was Southern District of Georgia (Savannah). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 170.5 percent — was Washington, D.C. (Washington).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 58.3 percent — was Northern District of Oklahoma (Tulsa). But over the past five years, Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) showed the largest drop — 63.3 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 January 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Epps, Brian K. Ga, S 37 1 - 679 More Moody, James Maxwell, Jr. Ark, E 20 2 115 199 More Welte, Peter David N Dakota 12 3 1 343 More Scholer, Karen Gren Texas, N 11 4 512 153 More Birotte, Andre, Jr. Cal, C 8 5 98 343 More Morris, Brian Matthew Montana 8 5 15 72 More Gleason, Sharon Louise Alaska 7 7 15 343 More Merryday, Steven Douglas Fla, M 7 7 188 679 More Nye, David Charles Idaho 7 7 98 26 More Shipp, Michael A. N. J. 7 7 137 199 More Mitchell, K. Nicole Texas, E 7 7 - 492 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 5 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 6 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Brian K. Epps in the Southern District of Georgia (Savannah) ranked 1st with 37 defendants in cases.
Judge James Maxwell Moody, Jr. in the Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock) ranked 2nd with 20 defendants in cases.
Judge Peter David Welte in the District of North Dakota ranked 3rd with 12 defendants in cases. Judge Welte also appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago (ranked 1).
Report Generated: March 12, 2025
