18 U.S.C. § 872 — Extortion by officers or employees of the United States

This section punishes federal officers and employees who commit extortion using their government position. It applies to anyone who is an officer or employee of the United States or any federal department or agency. It also covers someone who falsely claims to hold such a position, or acts as if they do. The law targets a person who, under "color or pretense of office or employment," commits or attempts extortion. That phrase means using the appearance of government authority, real or fake, to demand something the person is not entitled to. If someone extorts money or property this way, the penalty is a fine, imprisonment of not more than three years, or both. This is the standard punishment under the section. The law sets a lighter penalty for smaller amounts. If the amount extorted or demanded is $1,000 or less, the punishment drops to a fine, imprisonment of not more than one year, or both. So the seriousness of the punishment depends directly on how much money or property the person demanded. A court can combine a fine and prison time within these limits.

The source credit shows that this section was originally enacted June 25, 1948, as part of chapter 645, 62 Stat. 740, the act that generally revised and codified federal criminal law into Title 18 of the United States Code. It was subsequently amended by an act of October 31, 1951 (ch. 655, § 24(b), 65 Stat. 720), and later by Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(G), (K) (1994), and Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, § 606(a) (1996). The record thus reflects one original enactment and at least three subsequent amendments spanning nearly five decades. Historical context: The 1948 act is commonly understood as a major recodification effort that consolidated and reorganized federal criminal statutes then scattered across the Code, rather than as a piece of substantive policy legislation addressing a single problem. Provisions criminalizing extortion by federal officers or employees reflect a longstanding general concern with maintaining integrity in federal service and deterring abuse of official position for personal gain, a concern reflected in various federal criminal statutes of this era. Beyond this general observation, the record does not establish the specific legislative motivation for including this particular provision, nor does it document the purposes behind the later 1951, 1994, or 1996 amendments. Any more detailed account of congressional intent behind this section would be speculative and is not supported by the materials provided.