---
kind: "section"
citation: "18 U.S.C. § 372"
title: "18"
title_heading: "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"
number: "372"
heading: "Conspiracy to impede or injure officer"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18/372"
units:
  - "Part I — Crimes"
  - "Chapter 19 — Conspiracy"
---

# §372. Conspiracy to impede or injure officer


If two or more [persons](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5) in any [State](/usc/18/31.md?p=a-9), Territory, Possession, or District conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any [person](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5) from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the [United States](/usc/18/229F.md?p=9), or from discharging any duties thereof, or to induce by like means any [officer](/usc/18/202.md?p=c) of the [United States](/usc/18/229F.md?p=9) to leave the place, where his duties as an [officer](/usc/18/202.md?p=c) are required to be performed, or to injure him in his [person](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5) or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties, each of such [persons](/usc/18/229F.md?p=5) shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six years, or both.


## Source credit

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 701; Pub. L. 107–273, div. B, title IV, § 4002(d)(1)(D), Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1809.)

## Notes

### Historical and Revision Notes

Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., § 54 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, § 21, 35 Stat. 1092).

Scope of section was enlarged to cover all possessions of the United States. When the section was first enacted in 1861 there were no possessions, and hence the use of the words “State or Territory” was sufficient to describe the area then subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. The word “District” was inserted by the codifiers of the 1909 Criminal Code.

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2002—Pub. L. 107–273 substituted “under this title” for “not more than $5,000”.