18 U.S.C. § 1924
Section 1924 · Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Rehaif v. United States (2019)
Most recently applied in State v. Moreno (November 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.
For purposes of this section, the provision of documents and materials to the Congress shall not constitute an offense under subsection (a).
In this section, the term “classified information of the United States” means information originated, owned, or possessed by the United States Government concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States that has been determined pursuant to law or Executive order to require protection against unauthorized disclosure in the interests of national security.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2018—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 115–118 substituted “five years” for “one year”.
2002—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 107–273 substituted “under this title” for “not more than $1,000,”.