What Is the Possible Sentence for a Federal Conspiracy Charge?

A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime. In federal court, the possible sentence depends on which conspiracy law is charged. The general conspiracy law carries up to 5 years, while a drug conspiracy carries the same penalties as the drug crime itself, including any mandatory minimum.

What is a conspiracy?

We hear the word "conspiracy" all the time, and almost every crime drama has a conspiracy charge filed or threatened. In a real-life example from 2018, the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit claiming that the Trump presidential campaign, Russia, WikiLeaks, and Trump's son and son-in-law conspired to undercut the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign by stealing thousands of emails. (Update, October 2026: a federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in 2019. It is mentioned here only as a well-known example of a conspiracy claim, not as proof that any conspiracy happened.)

All of this can make conspiracy sound like a complicated idea reserved for high-stakes crime. In fact it is simple: an agreement to do something illegal.

If two people agree to rob a bank, that is a conspiracy. Under many conspiracy laws, the government must also show an "overt act," meaning any step one of the people takes to move the plan forward. If one of them buys ski masks, both may be guilty of conspiracy.

If they go on to rob the bank, they can be charged and sentenced for both the conspiracy and the robbery.

Conspiracy is an "inchoate" crime

An inchoate crime is one that is not finished. Planning or agreeing to a crime can be a crime by itself, even if the main crime never happens.

Sentencing For Conspiracy

In the example above, agreeing to rob a bank and buying ski masks can be enough for conspiracy to commit robbery, even if no robbery takes place.

Two other inchoate crimes are:

• Solicitation: asking someone else to commit a crime. Offering to pay someone to hurt another person is solicitation, even if they never do it.
• Attempt: trying to commit a crime and failing. Shooting at someone and missing can be attempted murder. The murder did not happen, but the law still punishes the attempt.

Sentences for these inchoate crimes can be severe.

What the government must prove

To convict you of criminal conspiracy, the prosecutor generally must prove:

1. An agreement. You agreed with at least one other person to do something illegal. The original version of this article said you can be guilty even if the only other "conspirator" was an undercover officer. That is not the rule in federal court: under federal law, an agreement with only a government agent or informant is not a conspiracy, because there must be at least one real co-conspirator. Some states do allow a conspiracy charge in that situation.
2. An overt act, if the law requires one. Someone in the group took a step, legal or not, to carry out the plan. If the would-be bank robbers in our example never bought ski masks or did anything else to make the robbery happen, they could not be convicted under a conspiracy law that requires an overt act.

Not every conspiracy law requires an overt act. For example, the Supreme Court held that a federal drug conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. § 846 does not require one (United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10 (1994)).

Sentencing for conspiracy

Conspiracy is its own crime with its own penalty, and the penalty depends on what the agreement was about. An agreement to steal candy from a corner store will be punished far less than an agreement to murder someone.

Under many conspiracy laws, the penalty is tied to the penalty for the crime that was the goal. Under the federal drug conspiracy law, for example, a conspiracy carries the same range as the drug crime itself. That is not true of every law, though. The general federal conspiracy law caps the sentence at 5 years, even if the planned crime carries much more.

• General federal conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 371): Up to 5 years in prison and a fine. If the goal was only a misdemeanor, the conspiracy cannot be punished more than that misdemeanor.
• Drug conspiracy (21 U.S.C. § 846): The same penalties as the drug crime that was the goal, including any mandatory minimum.
• Other specific conspiracy laws: Some federal crimes have their own conspiracy provisions with their own penalties.

Your actual sentence will also depend on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, your role in the group, the amount of drugs or money involved, and your record.

In a drug conspiracy with a mandatory minimum, ask early whether the "safety valve" applies. The safety valve lets the judge sentence below the mandatory minimum for certain drug crimes if the person meets strict conditions, including limits on criminal history, no violence or gun, no leadership role, and a truthful statement to the government about the offense (18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)).

Federal conspiracy laws are written broadly, and penalties vary with the crime and with factors that make it more or less serious. That is why it is important to get advice about your own situation.

Facing a federal sentence? Book a consultation to talk it through with Brandon Sample.