Examples of treason under U.S. law are strikingly few. The Constitution limits the crime to two acts — levying war against the United States, or giving aid and comfort to its enemies — and fewer than 50 people have ever been charged under the federal treason statute. Only about a dozen were convicted. Nearly every name on that short list traces back to World War II, when Americans actively helped Nazi or Imperial Japanese forces.
What the Constitution Counts as Treason
Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution restricts treason to two forms of betrayal: waging war against the United States, or siding with its enemies by providing them aid and comfort. Nothing else qualifies, however harmful or disloyal it may seem. Congress can create related crimes like espionage or seditious conspiracy, but it cannot stretch the definition of treason itself.1Congress.gov. Article III Section 3
Federal statute tracks the constitutional language. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2381, anyone who owes allegiance to the United States and either wages war against it or aids its enemies is guilty of treason. Penalties start at five years in prison and a $10,000 fine and run up to the death penalty, and anyone convicted is permanently barred from holding federal office.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2381 – Treason Because the offense is capital, there is no statute of limitations.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3281 – Capital Offenses
Examples of Levying War
Levying war means more than angry speech or a plot on paper. Courts have required an actual gathering of people, organized and ready to use force against federal authority on a broad scale. A single scuffle with a federal officer isn’t enough. Neither is a spontaneous riot. The assembled group has to aim at overthrowing the government or forcibly blocking the enforcement of federal law.
The Whiskey Rebellion (1794)
The earliest federal treason prosecutions grew out of the Whiskey Rebellion, when western Pennsylvania farmers violently resisted a federal excise tax on distilled spirits. Federal troops arrested dozens of participants. Only two were convicted of treason, and President Washington pardoned both along with everyone still awaiting trial.
The Trial of Aaron Burr (1807)
Aaron Burr was accused of plotting to seize territory in the western United States and establish an independent nation. Chief Justice John Marshall, presiding, ruled that Burr — who hadn’t been physically present at the armed gathering on Blennerhassett’s Island — could only be convicted if two witnesses testified he personally organized the assemblage. The prosecution couldn’t meet that standard, and Burr was acquitted. The ruling made it extremely difficult to convict anyone of levying war without proof of direct, personal involvement in actual hostilities.4Congress.gov. ArtIII.S3.C1.3 Trial of Aaron Burr
The line between civil unrest and levying war comes down to scale and intent. A group that assembles armed and marches on a federal installation intending to seize control is in treason territory. A protest that turns violent falls under different criminal statutes unless the participants are organized to overthrow federal authority itself.
Examples of Giving Aid and Comfort to Enemies
The second form of treason requires shifting allegiance to an enemy of the United States and taking concrete action to help that enemy: funneling money, passing classified intelligence, sheltering enemy agents on American soil. An internal shift of loyalty alone doesn’t count. Something tangible has to change hands or get done.
Who counts as an “enemy” matters here. Courts have generally required open hostility between the United States and a foreign power. Helping a nation the U.S. is formally at war with clearly qualifies. Assisting a non-state terrorist group or a hostile country during peacetime typically falls under other federal statutes like espionage or material support for terrorism, which is one reason modern prosecutors rarely charge treason.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2381 – Treason The aid doesn’t have to succeed; an intercepted wire transfer still counts if the defendant acted voluntarily with intent to benefit the enemy.
Hans Max Haupt
During World War II, Hans Max Haupt sheltered his son Herbert, one of eight German saboteurs who had entered the United States by submarine with orders to destroy war infrastructure. The elder Haupt helped his son find a job at a factory producing military equipment and assisted him in buying a car. The Supreme Court upheld the treason conviction, finding that these acts of parental support directly helped an enemy agent establish cover and carry out his mission. The Court acknowledged the argument that Haupt was simply acting as any father would, but held that knowingly assisting someone understood to be an enemy operative crosses the line from family loyalty into treason.5Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Haupt v United States
Tomoya Kawakita
Tomoya Kawakita was a U.S.-born citizen of Japanese descent who was in Japan when World War II broke out. He took a job as an interpreter at a nickel mining company that used American prisoners of war as forced labor, and he physically abused the prisoners and subjected them to brutal working conditions. After the war, he returned to the United States, where a former prisoner recognized him in a department store. The Supreme Court affirmed his treason conviction, holding that his American citizenship imposed a duty of allegiance he violated by actively mistreating U.S. prisoners on behalf of the enemy.6Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Kawakita v United States He was sentenced to death. President Eisenhower commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 1953, and President Kennedy paroled him a decade later on the condition that he leave the country permanently.
Herbert John Burgman
Herbert John Burgman was an American embassy clerk stationed in Berlin who stayed in Germany after the outbreak of World War II to broadcast pro-Nazi propaganda on German shortwave radio. Using the alias “Joe Scanlon,” he delivered messages designed to demoralize American troops and spread misinformation. At trial he claimed the Gestapo had coerced him; the government argued his participation was voluntary. He was convicted and sentenced to six to twenty years in federal prison. His case shows that psychological warfare on behalf of an enemy counts as aid and comfort just as much as supplying weapons or money.
What Prosecutors Have to Prove
Treason convictions require evidence that would be overkill for any other crime. No one can be found guilty unless two witnesses testify to the same overt act of betrayal, or the defendant confesses in open court.1Congress.gov. Article III Section 3 Prosecutors can’t stitch a case together by having one witness describe one incident and a second witness describe something else. Both must have seen the same act.
The Supreme Court tightened this rule in Cramer v. United States (1945), involving a German-born American accused of helping Nazi saboteurs. The Court held that the overt act witnessed by two people must, on its own, show that the defendant actually gave aid and comfort to the enemy. Circumstantial evidence and inferences can establish intent, but not the act itself. The Court reversed Cramer’s conviction because the acts the two witnesses described — public meetings with the saboteurs — were too ambiguous to prove aid and comfort by themselves.7Legal Information Institute. Cramer v United States
The alternative is a voluntary confession in open court. A statement to police during questioning, a private admission, or a written confession doesn’t satisfy the Constitution. The confession has to happen in front of a judge, on the record, with the defendant speaking freely.
Who Can Commit Treason
Treason isn’t limited to U.S. citizens. In Carlisle v. United States (1873), the Supreme Court held that foreign nationals living in the United States owe a “local and temporary allegiance” to the government for as long as they reside here. That allegiance carries the same obligations as citizenship for purposes of treason law. A resident alien who aids an enemy of the United States during wartime can be charged with treason just like a natural-born citizen.8Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Carlisle v United States The duty lasts as long as the person remains in the country and doesn’t require any oath or naturalization.
Why Modern Cases Use Other Charges
The high evidentiary bar is the main reason federal prosecutors reach for related statutes instead of treason, and it’s why there are no recent examples to add to the list.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2384, it’s a crime for two or more people to conspire to overthrow the U.S. government by force, wage war against it, forcibly oppose its authority, or seize its property. The maximum sentence is twenty years. Seditious conspiracy doesn’t require two witnesses or a courtroom confession, so standard federal evidence rules apply, and the conspiracy itself is the crime — the plotters don’t have to succeed.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2384 – Seditious Conspiracy
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2383, anyone who incites, assists, or participates in a rebellion against U.S. authority faces up to ten years in prison and a permanent ban from holding federal office.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2383 – Rebellion or Insurrection Like seditious conspiracy, it avoids the near-impossible evidentiary hurdles of treason while still reaching fundamentally disloyal conduct.
The last federal treason prosecution occurred during World War II. Given the availability of espionage, sedition, insurrection, and material-support-for-terrorism charges, the historical list of treason examples is likely to stay roughly where it is.