justice.gov APIjustice.gov ↗
Search and retrieve U.S. Department of Justice press releases by keyword, date, and topic. Access full text, settlement amounts, entities, and case details.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/b30e408c-381f-406e-9eeb-462df2d5ae1e/search_press_releases?query=settlement&max_pages=1' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search DOJ press releases by keyword with optional date filtering and pagination. Returns structured results including title, date, summary, settlement amount (if mentioned), entity name, and location. Results are paginated at 12 per page.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Page number (0-indexed, 12 results per page) |
| query | string | Search keywords (e.g., 'antitrust', 'civil rights', 'settlement', 'indictment') |
| sort_by | string | Sort order: 'search_api_relevance' or 'field_date' |
| end_date | string | Filter results until this date (format: mm/dd/yyyy). Omitting returns results up to present. |
| max_pages | integer | Maximum number of pages to fetch |
| start_date | string | Filter results from this date (format: mm/dd/yyyy). Omitting returns results from all dates. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"query": "string — the search query used",
"results": "array of objects with title, date, date_iso, url, summary, settlement_amount, entity_name, location",
"page_start": "integer — starting page number",
"pages_fetched": "integer — number of pages actually fetched",
"total_results": "integer — number of results returned across all fetched pages"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"query": "healthcare fraud",
"results": [
{
"url": "https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-prosecutes-half-billion-dollars-healthcare-and-covid-fraud-schemes",
"date": "April 7, 2026",
"title": "Justice Department Prosecutes a Half-Billion Dollars in Healthcare and COVID Fraud Schemes Exploiting Taxpayer Funded Programs",
"summary": "The Justice Department announced today three separate civil and criminal actions to hold two companies and two individual defendants accountable for schemes that attempted to fraudulently bill taxpayer-funded programs of over $500 million",
"date_iso": "2026-04-07T12:00:00Z",
"location": null,
"entity_name": null,
"settlement_amount": "$500 million"
}
],
"page_start": 0,
"pages_fetched": 1,
"total_results": 12
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the justice.gov API
This API provides access to U.S. Department of Justice press releases through 2 endpoints that cover enforcement actions, settlements, indictments, and civil rights announcements. Use search_press_releases to query by keyword and date range, returning structured fields including title, summary, settlement amount, entity name, and location. Use get_press_release_detail to fetch the complete body text, topic tags, and DOJ organizational components for any individual release.
Searching DOJ Press Releases
The search_press_releases endpoint accepts a query string (e.g., 'antitrust', 'civil rights', 'indictment') alongside optional start_date and end_date parameters in mm/dd/yyyy format to narrow results to a specific time window. Results are paginated at 12 per page using a 0-indexed page parameter, and you can set max_pages to control how many pages are fetched in a single call. The sort_by parameter accepts either 'search_api_relevance' or 'field_date'. Each result in the results array includes title, date, date_iso, url, summary, settlement_amount (extracted when mentioned), entity_name, and location. The response also surfaces total_results, pages_fetched, and page_start for pagination tracking.
Fetching Full Press Release Details
The get_press_release_detail endpoint takes a path value from the url field of any search result and returns the complete press release. The response includes the full body text, a title, date and date_iso timestamps, a location field (or null if not identified), an array of topics tags assigned by DOJ, an array of components identifying which DOJ offices or divisions issued the release, and a settlement_amount field where applicable. This makes it straightforward to extract structured enforcement data without parsing HTML yourself.
Data Coverage and Scope
The API covers the full public press release archive published on justice.gov, spanning all major DOJ components including the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Attorneys' Offices, and Main Justice divisions. Topic coverage includes antitrust enforcement, civil rights, cybercrime, drug trafficking, financial fraud, immigration, and national security, among others. Dates, geographic locations, and named entities are structured fields, making the data usable for timeline analysis, enforcement trend tracking, or case research without additional parsing.
- Track DOJ antitrust settlements over time by querying the
settlement_amountfield across date ranges - Monitor enforcement actions against a specific company by searching its name as a keyword and reading
entity_namefields - Build a civil rights enforcement timeline by filtering
search_press_releaseswith the query'civil rights'and sorting byfield_date - Extract DOJ cybercrime indictment details by fetching full
bodytext viaget_press_release_detail - Aggregate press releases by DOJ component using the
componentsarray returned in detail responses - Research geographic enforcement patterns using the
locationfield across a set of search results - Feed legal research tools with structured topic tags from the
topicsarray on individual press releases
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does the Department of Justice offer an official public developer API for press releases?+
What does the `search_press_releases` endpoint return beyond a title and date?+
summary (a brief excerpt), settlement_amount (a dollar figure extracted when present in the release), entity_name (the named defendant, company, or subject), location, and both a human-readable date and an ISO 8601 date_iso. The total_results, pages_fetched, and page_start fields help you manage pagination across large result sets.Are there any data gaps or fields that may be null?+
settlement_amount and location are null when the press release does not mention a dollar figure or geographic location. entity_name may also be absent for releases that announce policy positions rather than enforcement actions. Topic and component coverage depends on how each release was tagged by DOJ at publication.Does the API cover DOJ court filings, charging documents, or PACER records beyond press releases?+
Can I retrieve all press releases for a specific DOJ component like the FBI or a U.S. Attorney's Office?+
search_press_releases. The components array is returned in get_press_release_detail responses, so you can filter after retrieval. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add a component-level filter as an input parameter.