Prosecutions for July 2025
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2025 the government reported 937 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 14.6 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 up (6.8%). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 30.6 percent from levels reported in 2020.
The growth in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in prosecutions is 22.4 percent instead of 30.6 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Prosecutions
The increase 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 July 2025 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 27.1 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (13.9%), "Violence-Other" (10.4%), "Project Safe Childhood" (8%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (7.6%), "Violence-Indian Country" (4.5%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (3.3%), "Fraud-Other" (3.3%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.9%), "Fraud-Health Care" (2.7%), "Bank Robbery" (2%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2025, 200 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 July 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 13.5 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 111 - Assaulting, resisting, impeding certain officers" (9.5%), "18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts" (8%), "18 USC 1114 - Protection of officers and employees of US" (7.5%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2025, 737 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 214 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 July.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during July 2025 referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 113 1 3 3 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 102 2 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 67 3 2 2 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 34 4 4 6 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 27 5 6 5 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 27 5 5 7 More 18 USC 2250 - Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce 25 7 8 11 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 24 8 10 4 More 18 USC 113 - Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions 19 9 11 12 More Table 2. Top Charges Filed
"Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "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 2 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions — up 30.8 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 ". This was the same statute that had the largest increase — 130.9 % — when compared with five years ago.
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 " Hobbs Act " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1951 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions — 5.5 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 July 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 340.7 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 N Mexico 1,986 35 1 29 13 More Montana 1,695 16 2 17 14 More D. C. 1,591 9 3 1 22 More S Dakota 1,325 10 4 24 49 More Tenn, E 1,122 26 5 33 23 More Nebraska 1,031 17 6 65 26 More La, E 1,025 14 7 28 58 More Miss, N 990 9 8 76 89 More Wash, E 986 14 9 31 57 More N Dakota 918 6 10 49 56 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of New Mexico — with 1986 prosecutions as compared with 340.7 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during July 2025.
The District of Montana ranked 2nd.
District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) is now ranking 3rd. The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) was ranked 1 a year ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Montana , now ranked 2nd , and South Dakota at 4th In the same order, these districts ranked 17th and 24th one year ago and 14th and 49th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 97 percent — was Nebraska . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 975 percent — was Northern District of Mississippi (Oxford).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 77.6 percent — was Washington, D.C. (Washington). This was the same district that had the largest increase — 15.4 percent — when compared with five years ago.
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 July 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Thurston, Jennifer L. Cal, E 42 1 5 - More Velez-Rive, Camille L. Puer Rico 19 2 215 - More Merryday, Steven Douglas Fla, M 16 3 181 394 More Olguin, Fernando M. Cal, C 15 4 332 - More Scriven, Mary Stenson Fla, M 12 5 24 196 More Axon, Annemarie Carney Ala, N 11 6 332 240 More Gorton, Nathaniel M. Mass 10 7 479 240 More Watters, Susan Pamela Montana 8 8 24 6 More Brown, Debra Marie Miss, N 7 9 274 - More Browning, James O. N Mexico 7 9 71 196 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 3 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 7 judges were from other districts.
Judge Jennifer L. Thurston in the Eastern District of California (Sacramento) ranked 1st with 42 defendants in cases. Judge Thurston also appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago (ranked 5).
Judge Camille L. Velez-Rive in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 2nd with 19 defendants in cases.
Judge Steven Douglas Merryday in the Middle District of Florida (Tampa) ranked 3rd with 16 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: September 25, 2025
