Prosecutions for March 2025
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2025 the government reported 1094 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 20.4 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 down (-0.8%). 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 11.8 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 March 2025 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 23.1 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (14.2%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (10.6%), "Project Safe Childhood" (10.1%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (8%), "Violence-Other" (5.4%), "Violence-Indian Country" (3.5%), "Fraud-Other" (3.2%), "Bank Robbery" (2.7%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.7%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2025, 218 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 March the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 involving "Firearms; Unlawful acts". This was the lead charge for 15.6 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (9.2%), "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (6%), "18 USC 2252A - Activity relating material constituting/containing chil" (5%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2025, 876 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 117 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 March.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during March 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 162 1 1 1 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 75 2 2 3 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 49 3 4 4 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 40 4 5 7 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 38 5 3 2 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 32 7 8 6 More 18 USC 2250 - Fail to register as sex offender after traveling interstate commerce 29 8 11 14 More 18 USC 111 - Assaulting, resisting, impeding certain officers 23 9 21 21 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 23 9 6 5 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 59.8 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 — 96.2 % — 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 50.2 percent — was " Hobbs Act " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1951 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease — 57.2 % — when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2025 the Justice Department's case-by-case records show that the government brought 355.8 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 Dakota 2,296 15 1 22 69 More Tenn, W 1,934 25 2 73 30 More D. C. 1,767 10 3 1 17 More Wyoming 1,644 8 4 85 79 More S Dakota 1,325 10 5 50 48 More Ken, E 1,288 24 6 46 42 More Montana 1,271 12 7 28 39 More Okla, E 1,127 7 8 61 90 More Ala, S 1,105 8 9 73 61 More W Virg, N 1,037 8 10 7 90 More Table 3. Top 10 Districts (per ten million people)
The District of North Dakota — with 2296 prosecutions as compared with 355.8 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States — was the most active during March 2025.
The Western District of Tennessee (Memphis) 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 North Dakota , now ranked 1st , and Montana at 7th In the same order, these districts ranked 22nd and 28th one year ago and 69th and 39th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago — 87.5 percent — was Western District of Tennessee (Memphis). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth — 816.7 percent — was Eastern District of Oklahoma (Muskogee).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions — 81.1 percent — was Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling). But over the past five years, Western District of Tennessee (Memphis) showed the largest drop — 43.8 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 March 2025 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Covington, Virginia Maria Hernandez Fla, M 10 1 More Kane, John L., Jr. Colorado 8 2 More Larkins, John K., III Ga, N 8 2 More Valdez, Maria Ill, N 8 2 More Wier, Robert Earl Ken, E 8 2 More Edmunds, Nancy Garlock Mich, E 8 2 More Ramos, Edgardo N. Y., S 8 2 More Newman, Michael J. Ohio, S 8 2 More Caldwell, Karen K. Ken, E 7 9 More Gibney, John Adrian, Jr. Virg, E 7 9 More Table 4. Top Ten Judges
A total of 2 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 8 judges were from other districts.
Judge Virginia Maria Hernandez Covington in the Middle District of Florida (Tampa) ranked 1st with 10 defendants in cases.
Judges John L. Kane, Jr. in the District of Colorado, John K. Larkins, III in the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta), Maria Valdez in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), Robert Earl Wier in the Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington), Nancy Garlock Edmunds in the Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit), Edgardo Ramos in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) and Michael J. Newman in the Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati) ranked 2nd with 8 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: May 14, 2025
