What Is a Federal Misdemeanor? Classes, Penalties, and Record

A federal misdemeanor is a criminal offense that violates a law passed by the U.S. Congress and carries a maximum sentence of one year or less in jail. Federal law sorts these offenses into three classes based on how much prison time the statute allows, with fines reaching anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000. A conviction is less severe than a felony, but it still creates a permanent criminal record and can reach into employment, firearms rights, and immigration status.

What Separates a Misdemeanor From a Felony

One factor decides the line: the maximum prison sentence the statute authorizes. If the law caps incarceration at one year or less, the offense is a misdemeanor. If the maximum exceeds a year, it’s a felony.¹ Fines and probation terms don’t change the classification. A crime with a $100,000 fine but only six months of possible jail time is still a misdemeanor.

The Three Classes of Federal Misdemeanors

Federal misdemeanors are graded into three tiers. The class fixes both the maximum jail sentence a judge can impose and the maximum fine for an individual.

Class A. The most serious tier. More than six months and up to one year of imprisonment, with a fine up to $100,000.¹²
Class B. More than thirty days and up to six months of imprisonment, with a fine up to $5,000.¹²
Class C. More than five days and up to thirty days of imprisonment, with a fine up to $5,000.¹²

If the misdemeanor results in someone’s death, the fine ceiling rises to $250,000 regardless of class.² These are default maximums. If the specific statute defining the crime sets a higher fine, a judge can impose that instead.

Common Examples

Many federal misdemeanors involve conduct that would normally be a state crime but becomes federal because it happened on federal property. A simple assault in a city park is a state matter; the same assault inside a national park or federal courthouse is a federal offense carrying up to six months.³ Stealing property worth $1,000 or less from a post office or military base is a federal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year.⁴ Disorderly conduct in a federal building and certain traffic offenses on federal land land in the same category.

Other federal misdemeanors have nothing to do with location. A first conviction for simple possession of a controlled substance is punishable by up to one year in prison and a minimum $1,000 fine.⁵ A second possession conviction climbs to fifteen days to two years, which pushes it into felony territory. Willfully failing to file a tax return is a misdemeanor carrying up to one year and a $25,000 fine, and it sits well below tax fraud or evasion in seriousness.⁶

How a Federal Misdemeanor Case Moves

Federal misdemeanors follow a different procedural track than felonies. A felony charge requires a grand jury indictment. A misdemeanor does not. The government can instead file a charging document called an “information,” which is a written statement of the facts and charges signed by a federal prosecutor.⁷ You can be charged without a grand jury ever reviewing the evidence.

Your right to a jury trial depends on the class. A Class A charge carries jury-trial rights because the possible sentence exceeds six months. Class B and C offenses are classified as “petty offenses,” and the Constitution does not guarantee a jury trial for them.⁸ A federal magistrate judge can handle petty offense cases from start to finish, including a bench trial where the judge alone decides guilt.

Sentencing Beyond Jail

Judges have real flexibility at sentencing. Jail time up to the class maximum is one option, but far from the only one.

Probation and Supervised Release

Instead of jail, or added to a short sentence, a judge can impose probation of up to five years on a misdemeanor conviction.⁹ That’s a long leash for an offense capped at a year of possible jail time. Conditions typically include regular check-ins with a probation officer and staying out of further trouble.

If jail is imposed, the court can add up to one year of supervised release afterward.¹⁰ Supervised release works like probation but follows your time behind bars, and violating its conditions can send you back to prison.

Fines, Restitution, and Special Assessments

On top of the class-based fine, the court can order restitution to victims to cover financial losses from the offense. Every federal conviction also triggers a mandatory special assessment paid into a crime victims fund. The amounts are small but unavoidable: $25 for a Class A misdemeanor, $10 for Class B, and $5 for Class C.¹¹ A judge cannot waive these.

Long-Term Consequences

What a judge imposes at sentencing is only part of the picture. A federal misdemeanor conviction creates ripples that outlast any jail term or probation period.

Criminal Record and Employment

A conviction produces a permanent federal criminal record. It shows up on background checks and can create obstacles for employment, housing applications, and professional licensing. Unlike many state systems, federal law offers almost no path to seal or expunge a standard misdemeanor conviction. Even a Class C conviction with no jail time will follow you.

Firearms and Domestic Violence

Most federal misdemeanor convictions do not affect your right to own a firearm. The major exception is a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. A conviction for any domestic violence misdemeanor, in federal or state court, triggers a permanent ban on possessing firearms or ammunition under federal law.¹² Violating that ban is itself a federal felony. This catches people off guard because the original conviction can seem minor while the firearms consequence is severe and permanent.

Immigration

For non-citizens, a federal misdemeanor can trigger deportation proceedings. Under immigration law, a person is deportable if convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude within five years of admission to the United States, provided the offense carries a possible sentence of one year or more. A Class A misdemeanor involving fraud, theft, or dishonesty can make a lawful permanent resident deportable. Two convictions for crimes of moral turpitude at any time after admission can also trigger removal, regardless of the sentence imposed.¹³

Clearing a Federal Misdemeanor Record

Options for erasing a federal misdemeanor conviction are narrow compared to state court. There is no general federal expungement statute. For most misdemeanors, the conviction stays on your record permanently.

First-Time Drug Possession

The one meaningful exception involves first-time drug possession. If you have no prior drug conviction and you’re found guilty of simple possession, the court can place you on probation for up to one year without entering a conviction. Complete probation without a violation, and the court dismisses the case. If you were under twenty-one at the time of the offense, you can also apply for an expungement order that removes all official records of the arrest and proceedings.¹⁴ This is one of the only true clean-slate options in the federal system.

Presidential Pardons

For any other federal misdemeanor, the main path to relief is a presidential pardon. You must wait at least five years after completing your sentence before you’re eligible to apply. If the conviction resulted in probation or a fine with no jail time, the five-year clock starts on the date of sentencing.¹⁵ A pardon doesn’t erase the conviction from your record, but it can restore certain rights and carry weight with employers and licensing boards. Waivers of the waiting period are granted only in exceptional circumstances.

Federal vs. State Misdemeanors

The core difference is jurisdiction: which government’s law was broken. Federal misdemeanors involve laws passed by Congress and are prosecuted in U.S. District Courts by federal prosecutors. State misdemeanors involve a state legislature’s laws and are handled by local or state courts. Federal jurisdiction applies to crimes on federal property, offenses involving federal employees in their official duties, and crimes that cross state lines. The same physical act can land in either system depending entirely on where it happened. One practical difference worth knowing: state courts generally offer more options for clearing a record after a misdemeanor conviction, while the federal system has almost no equivalent outside the first-time drug possession exception above.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 113 – Assaults Within Maritime and Territorial Jurisdiction
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 641 – Public Money, Property or Records
5
U.S. Government Publishing Office. 21 USC 844 – Penalties for Simple Possession
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7203 – Willful Failure to File Return, Supply Information, or Pay Tax
7
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 7 – The Indictment and the Information
8
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 58 – Petty Offenses and Other Misdemeanors
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3561 – Sentence of Probation
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3583 – Inclusion of a Term of Supervised Release After Imprisonment
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3013 – Special Assessment on Convicted Persons
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3607 – Special Probation and Expungement Procedures for Drug Possessors
15
United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma. Applying for a Presidential Pardon