---
kind: "section"
citation: "18A U.S.C. § 12"
title: "18a"
title_heading: "Unlawful Possession or Receipt of Firearms"
number: "12"
heading: "Attorney General guidelines"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18a/12"
units:
  - "Act — Classified Information Procedures Act"
---

# §12. Attorney General guidelines

- (a) Within one hundred and eighty days of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue guidelines specifying the factors to be used by the Department of Justice in rendering a decision whether to prosecute a violation of Federal law in which, in the judgment of the Attorney General, there is a possibility that classified information will be revealed. Such guidelines shall be transmitted to the appropriate committees of Congress.
- (b) When the Department of Justice decides not to prosecute a violation of Federal law pursuant to [subsection (a)](#a), an appropriate official of the Department of Justice shall prepare written findings detailing the reasons for the decision not to prosecute. The findings shall include—
  - (1) the intelligence information which the Department of Justice officials believe might be disclosed,
  - (2) the purpose for which the information might be disclosed,
  - (3) the probability that the information would be disclosed, and
  - (4) the possible consequences such disclosure would have on the national security.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 96–456, § 12, Oct. 15, 1980, 94 Stat. 2029.)

## Notes

### References in Text

The enactment of this Act, referred to in subsec. (a), means Oct. 15, 1980.