18 U.S.C. § 35
Section 35 · Imparting or conveying false information
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 52 court decisions — leading case United States v. Ashley (1978)
Most recently applied in United States v. Mujera Lung'aho (July 2023)
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.
(a) Whoever imparts or conveys or causes to be imparted or conveyed false information, knowing the information to be false, concerning an attempt or alleged attempt being made or to be made, to do any act which would be a crime prohibited by this chapter or chapter 97 or chapter 111 of this title shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 which shall be recoverable in a civil action brought in the name of the United States.
(b) Whoever willfully and maliciously, or with reckless disregard for the safety of human life, imparts or conveys or causes to be imparted or conveyed false information, knowing the information to be false, concerning an attempt or alleged attempt being made or to be made, to do any act which would be a crime prohibited by this chapter or chapter 97 or chapter 111 of this title—shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1994—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000”.
1965—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 89–64 substituted “subject to a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 which shall be recoverable in a civil action brought in the name of the United States” for “fined not more than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both”.
1961—Pub. L. 87–338 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), struck out “willfully” before “imparts or conveys”, and added subsec. (b).