18 U.S.C. 371, Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 13,207 federal defendants had cases end with 18 U.S.C. 371 as the most serious charge. 12,183 (92%) pleaded guilty, and only 364 (3%) went to trial. Of those trials, 46 ended in an acquittal (13%), and 12,501 defendants (95%) were convicted overall.
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In brief: In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 13,207 federal defendants had cases end with 18 U.S.C. 371 as the most serious charge. 12,183 (92%) pleaded guilty, and only 364 (3%) went to trial. Of those trials, 46 ended in an acquittal (13%), and 12,501 defendants (95%) were convicted overall.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 13,207 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced 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.
A Large Section Resolved Mostly by Plea
Section 371 of Title 18 has the heading "Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States" in the U.S. Code. That heading is the only description of the section in this post.
With 13,207 defendants, this section has a large count. The Federal Judicial Center records every defendant whose case ended, including dismissals and acquittals, and counts each one under the most serious charge left at the end of the case.
Guilty pleas ended 12,183 cases (92%). Dismissals ended 660 (5%). Trials ended 364 (3%).
Judges Acquitted More Often Than Juries
Juries decided 335 of the 364 trials and acquitted in 36 (11%). Judges decided 29 trials without a jury and acquitted in 10 (34%).
The bench trial rate rests on 29 trials, a much smaller group than the jury trials. Cases tried to a judge may also differ from cases tried to a jury. The records do not show how those cases differ.
Charge Level and Prison Terms
Most cases had this section as a felony: 12,616 (96%). Another 582 (4%) were Class A misdemeanors, and 9 (less than 1%) were petty offenses.
Of the 12,501 convicted, 8,776 (70%) received a prison term on this charge. For terms of 1 month or more, the median was 24 months (2 years). 1 defendant received life.
Stable Plea Rates Across the Years
The yearly guilty plea rate stayed between 91% and 93% in every fiscal year from 2016 to 2025. The number of cases ending each year ranged from 994 in 2020 to 1,513 in 2016.
Acquittal rates at trial changed more from year to year. Each year had few trials. Fiscal year 2021 had 19 trials and 0 acquittals. Fiscal year 2024 had 41 trials and 10 acquittals (24%), and 2025 had 34 trials and 1 acquittal (3%). These yearly rates are too small to show a trend.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,513 | 92% | 5% | 54 | 11 (20%) |
| 2017 | 1,462 | 93% | 4% | 37 | 5 (14%) |
| 2018 | 1,324 | 93% | 4% | 40 | 2 (5%) |
| 2019 | 1,354 | 93% | 4% | 42 | 4 (10%) |
| 2020 | 994 | 91% | 5% | 36 | 4 (11%) |
| 2021 | 1,048 | 92% | 7% | 19 | 0 (0%) |
| 2022 | 1,383 | 91% | 8% | 22 | 3 (14%) |
| 2023 | 1,400 | 92% | 5% | 39 | 6 (15%) |
| 2024 | 1,444 | 93% | 4% | 41 | 10 (24%) |
| 2025 | 1,285 | 92% | 5% | 34 | 1 (3%) |
What Type of Lawyer Did Defendants Have?
Private (retained) counsel represented 5,780 defendants (44%). CJA panel attorneys represented 5,188 (39%), and federal public or community defenders represented 1,985 (15%). 20 defendants represented themselves.
Plea rates were close across the 3 lawyer groups: 96% for federal defenders, 94% for CJA panel attorneys, and 93% for retained counsel. Retained counsel had the most trials, 207, with 23 acquittals (11%). CJA panel attorneys had 131 trials and 19 acquittals (15%). Federal defenders had 22 trials and 4 acquittals (18%).
Among the 20 self-represented defendants, 45% had their cases dismissed and 35% pleaded guilty. That group is very small.
Counsel type is recorded at the end of the case. Those who retain a lawyer and those who are appointed one face different charges and circumstances, so these figures describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 1,985 | 96% | 2% | 22 | 4 (18%) |
| CJA panel attorney | 5,188 | 94% | 4% | 131 | 19 (15%) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 5,780 | 93% | 3% | 207 | 23 (11%) |
| Self-represented | 20 | 35% | 45% | 4 | 0 (0 of 4) |
What These Records Do Not Show
The records do not describe the facts of any case. They cannot show why a defendant pleaded guilty or went to trial.
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this section in the approved crosswalk. This post reports the federal numbers by themselves.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 18 U.S.C. 371, any subsection (13,207), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
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
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
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.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
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)
- 18 U.S.C. 286, Conspiracy to defraud the Government with respect to claims: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 287, False, fictitious or fraudulent claims: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 401, Power of court: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 471, Obligations or securities of United States: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- 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.