---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 904"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "904"
heading: "Art. 104. Public records offenses"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/904"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 47 — Uniform Code of Military Justice"
  - "Subchapter X — Punitive Articles"
---

# §904. Art. 104. Public records offenses


Any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) subject to this chapter who, willfully and unlawfully—

- (1) alters, conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys a public [record](/usc/10/801.md?p=14); or
- (2) takes a public [record](/usc/10/801.md?p=14) with the intent to alter, conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, or destroy the public [record](/usc/10/801.md?p=14);

shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 114–328, div. E, title LX, § 5415, Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2944.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Prior Provisions

A prior section 904 was renumbered section 903b of this title.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective on Jan. 1, 2019, as designated by the President, with implementing regulations and provisions relating to applicability to various situations, see section 5542 of Pub. L. 114–328 and Ex. Ord. No. 13825, set out as notes under section 801 of this title.