§2J1.4 Impersonation: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
Of 110 people sentenced under §2J1.4, the impersonation guideline, in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 66 (60%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 6.6 months. Trials were more common here than in many small guidelines: 11 people were convicted after a trial.
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In brief: Of 110 people sentenced under §2J1.4, the impersonation guideline, in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 66 (60%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 6.6 months. Trials were more common here than in many small guidelines: 11 people were convicted after a trial.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 110 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
What Impersonation Cases Look Like in the Data
Guideline §2J1.4 carries the one-word title "Impersonation" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The sheet does not say more about its scope, so this post stays with what the title and the numbers show.
The Sentencing Commission counted 110 people in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary guideline was §2J1.4. It files them under Administration of Justice.
Prison and Probation
Prison was ordered for 66 of the 110 people (60%). Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was ordered for 36 (33%).
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 6.6 months. A quarter received 12 months or more, and a quarter received 2.8 months or less.
The prison figures cover only the 66 people who were sent to prison. The 36 who received probation only are not part of the median of 6.6 months.
Plea or Trial?
Guilty pleas numbered 99 of 110 (90%). The other 11 people were convicted after a trial. Among guilty pleas, 80% had a written plea agreement and 19% were straight pleas.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 6.6 months, the same as for the whole group. After a trial it was 9 months, based on 10 people sent to prison.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
Most sentences were within the guideline range: 87 of 110 (79%). In 13 cases (12%), the sentence was above the range. In 6 (5%), it was below the range without a government request, and in 4 (4%), it was below the range at the government's request.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied: 0 (0%).
A sentence within the range means the court chose a term inside the span the Guidelines calculated. In this group, that was the usual result, and sentences above the range were more common than sentences below it.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Criminal History
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 61 people (55%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 19 (17%), and restitution for 8 (7%).
In criminal history, 60% were in the lowest category I and 8% were in the highest (VI).
Do the Yearly Medians Show a Trend?
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 51 people and a median prison term of 7 months. Fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 59 people and a median of 6.6 months. The medians for the earlier and later periods are about the same.
The single years are far less steady. The median was 1 month in 2023 and 22.5 months in 2025, but each year has only 7 to 17 people, and a few cases can move a median a long way.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 17 | 12 months | 94% |
| 2017 | 7 | 3.6 months | 6 of 7 |
| 2018 | 14 | 6 months | 93% |
| 2019 | 13 | 4 months | 92% |
| 2020 | 13 | 5.5 months | 85% |
| 2021 | 13 | 18 months | 85% |
| 2022 | 8 | 8 months | 7 of 8 |
| 2023 | 9 | 1 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2024 | 7 | 12 months | 6 of 7 |
| 2025 | 9 | 22.5 months | 9 of 9 |
Limits
Only convicted and sentenced people are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are missing. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the numbers cannot be set beside a court-martial result.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2J1.4 (110), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2J1.6 Failure to Appear by Defendant: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.