Terrorism-Domestic Prosecutions for December 2020
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during December 2020 the government reported 7 new terrorism-domestic prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down from 8 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 2).
When monthly 2020 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (267.5%). 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 425 percent from levels reported in 2015.
The substantial 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 terrorism-domestic prosecutions is 335.7 percent instead of 425 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 Terrorism-Domestic Prosecutions
The increase from the levels five years ago in terrorism-domestic prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 2. The vertical bars in Figure 2 represent the number of terrorism-domestic 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. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Number of Defendants in Terrorism-Domestic Cases
Table 2 lists all separate cases with the number of defendants.
Case Defendant # 2020 - Ark, E (Little Rock) Case: 1 1 Details 2020 - Ark, E (Little Rock) Case: 1 2 Details 2020 - Ark, E (Little Rock) Case: 1 3 Details 2020 - Ark, E (Little Rock) Case: 1 4 Details 2020 - N. Y., S (Manhattan) Case: 2 1 Details 2020 - Texas, E (Tyler) Case: 3 1 Details 2020 - Texas, W (San Antonio) Case: 4 1 Details Table 2. Number of Defendants per Case
Report Generated: January 20, 2021
