To download a DOJ indictment, pull it from PACER, the federal courts’ official electronic records system, at $0.10 per page capped at $3.00 per document, with quarterly charges under $30 waived entirely. For prominent cases, the Department of Justice often links a free PDF from its press release, and the free RECAP Archive at CourtListener may already have the filing if another user has downloaded it.
Start With PACER for the Official Copy
PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is administered by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and holds filings from every U.S. District Court, Court of Appeals, and Bankruptcy Court.1PACER. Public Access to Court Electronic Records The DOJ prosecutes the case, but the indictment itself is filed with the district court, and the court is the official custodian of the document. So the download comes from PACER, not from Justice.
Registering an Account
You need a registered account. Registration is free. If you only want to look up documents, choose the “Case Search Only” account type. During sign-up, PACER asks for your date of birth (permanent to the account, not editable later) and a tax identification number, which the system retains for federal debt collection if you ever run up unpaid fees.2PACER: Federal Court Records. Register for an Account
What It Actually Costs
PACER charges $0.10 per page to view or download, capped at $3.00 per document no matter how long it runs.3PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing – How Fees Work Most indictments hit the cap or come in well under it. If your total charges for the calendar quarter stay at $30.00 or less, the fees are waived entirely.4United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule For someone grabbing a handful of documents, the real-world cost is often zero.
Academic researchers can apply for broader fee exemptions across courts, but the project has to be defined, limited in scope, and not intended for commercial redistribution. Exemptions for other reasons are handled by the individual court, not by PACER centrally.5PACER: Federal Court Records. Fee Exemption Request for Researchers
Finding the Indictment on PACER
Once you’re logged in, the path depends on what you already know.
If you know which federal district court is handling the case, search that court directly. Individual court databases update in real time, so recent filings show up right away. Search by defendant name or case number, open the docket, and look for the entry labeled “Indictment” or “Superseding Indictment.” PACER displays the estimated cost before you confirm the download.6PACER: Federal Court Records. Find a Case
If you don’t know where the case was filed, use the PACER Case Locator. It searches a nationwide index and returns a list of courts and case numbers matching your party. The index updates daily rather than in real time, so filings from the past 24 hours may not appear yet.6PACER: Federal Court Records. Find a Case
Reading the Case Number
A federal criminal case number like “1:24-cr-00312-ABC” is readable once you know the parts. The leading digit is the courthouse division within the district. The two digits after the colon are the filing year. “cr” means criminal (civil cases use “cv”). The sequential number identifies the specific case, and the trailing letters are the presiding judge’s initials. This helps confirm you’ve got the right case when defendants share a common name.
Free Ways to Get the Same Document
DOJ and U.S. Attorney Press Releases
When a case draws public attention, the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs or the local U.S. Attorney’s Office usually issues a press release announcing the charges, and those releases often link straight to a PDF of the indictment.7United States Department of Justice. Press Releases Search the DOJ’s press releases page or the relevant U.S. Attorney’s website by defendant name. Only a fraction of cases get this treatment, so if the matter isn’t high-profile, this route won’t help.
RECAP Archive on CourtListener
RECAP is a free browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari that crowdsources PACER documents. When a user with RECAP installed downloads a document from PACER, a copy is contributed to the RECAP Archive at CourtListener. If someone has already pulled the indictment you need, you can grab it for free without touching PACER.8Free Law Project. RECAP Suite – Turning PACER Around Since 2009
The archive holds millions of documents and is searchable by party name, case number, or keyword. Scanned PDFs have been converted to searchable text.9CourtListener. Advanced RECAP Archive Search for PACER Coverage depends on what other users have downloaded, so it’s uneven, but for widely followed cases the odds are good that the indictment is already there.
The Courthouse Public Terminal
Any federal courthouse has a public access terminal where you can view electronic and paper records held at that court free of charge. Printing costs $0.10 per page.10United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) This is the most reliable no-cost option if you want the official court-filed version and would rather skip PACER’s online workflow.
Check for a Superseding Indictment
Federal cases don’t always proceed on the original charges. Prosecutors can return to the grand jury and obtain a superseding indictment that replaces the first one, adding charges, dropping charges, or adding defendants. Once returned, the superseding indictment becomes the operative charging document, and the case moves forward on that version.
On the docket, both filings appear in the history. The original stays visible but is no longer the active set of charges. If you download the first indictment listed without scrolling through the docket, you may be reading a version that has been superseded. Look for the most recent filing labeled “Indictment” or “Superseding Indictment” and pull that one.
When the Indictment Isn’t Available
If you know an indictment exists but can’t find it, the likely reason is that a judge has ordered it sealed. A sealed indictment is kept confidential and doesn’t appear on PACER, sometimes not even to the defendant, until a specific condition is met. Judges seal indictments primarily to keep a defendant from fleeing before arrest or destroying evidence while the investigation is still active.
After law enforcement arrests or serves the defendant, prosecutors typically move to unseal, and the document then becomes accessible on PACER like any other filing. The gap between a grand jury returning the indictment and public availability can run from days to months, depending on how long it takes to locate and arrest the defendant. While an indictment remains sealed, there’s no public channel, PACER or otherwise, that will produce it.