East of the Cascade summit, federal prosecutions belong to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington — a court whose territory runs from the Okanogan highlands to the Walla Walla wheat country, and whose docket looks nothing like a Washington state-court calendar. Anyone investigated or charged federally in Spokane, Yakima, or the Tri-Cities needs counsel who works in this system, under these rules, every day.
Here we break down the Eastern District of Washington for defendants and their families: the three staffed courthouses, the compact bench, the prosecutors and their Hanford-shaped fraud docket, the caseload numbers, and our approach to defending cases in this court. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. represents federal clients nationwide at trial, on appeal, and in post-conviction proceedings, and Elizabeth Franklin-Best represents federal defendants in the Eastern District of Washington through admission pro hac vice. The page is part of our federal courts directory.
If federal agents have made contact, a grand jury subpoena has arrived, or an indictment is already on file in Spokane, Yakima, or Richland, a paid, one-hour initial consultation with our firm is the place to take stock and plan.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Eastern District of Washington
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Eastern District of Washington cover? | Twenty counties east of the Cascade Mountains’ summit under 28 U.S.C. § 128(a), served by staffed courthouses in Spokane, Yakima, and Richland. |
| How is the bench composed? | Four district judgeships; Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian presides as of mid-2026, with Judges Rice, Dimke, and Pennell, five senior judges, and two magistrate judges. |
| Who prosecutes federal cases there? | The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington — led as of mid-2026 by Pete Serrano as First Assistant U.S. Attorney, with no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney in place. |
| What defines the docket? | Methamphetamine: 70% of the district’s FY2024 federal drug cases were meth cases, and firearms prosecutions ran well above the national share. |
| Which circuit hears appeals? | The Ninth Circuit takes the direct appeal; a Section 2255 motion is filed back in this district, where the conviction occurred. |
| Can the firm appear in this court? | Yes — under Local Rule 83.2(c) we move for pro hac vice admission case by case, and every engagement starts with a paid, one-hour initial consultation. |
Key Takeaways
- The district spans the twenty Washington counties east of the Cascade summit, with courthouses operating in Spokane, Yakima, and Richland; the statute also names Walla Walla as a place of holding court.
- Four district judgeships serve the district — Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian as of mid-2026, plus Judges Thomas O. Rice, Mary K. Dimke, and Rebecca L. Pennell — alongside five senior judges and two magistrate judges.
- Of 286 individuals sentenced in FY2024, 42% were drug-trafficking cases and 17.5% were firearms cases, both above national shares.
- Methamphetamine was the primary drug in a striking 70% of the district’s FY2024 drug cases; fentanyl accounted for 27.5%.
- Hanford-site contractors have generated some of the district’s most prominent federal fraud enforcement, including an $18.5 million civil-and-criminal resolution with CH2M Hill Hanford Group.
- The district tried 13 criminal cases in FY2024 — a 4.5% trial rate, triple the rate next door in the District of Oregon.
- Direct appeals go to the Ninth Circuit on a 14-day notice-of-appeal clock; Section 2255 motions return to this district.
- We take Eastern District of Washington cases by pro hac vice motion under Local Rule 83.2(c), from trial through post-conviction.
The Eastern District of Washington at a Glance
Washington divides into two federal districts under 28 U.S.C. § 128, and subsection (a) assigns the Eastern District the twenty counties lying generally east of the Cascade Mountains’ summit — Spokane, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Grant, Okanogan, and their neighbors. The statute designates Spokane, Yakima, Walla Walla, and Richland as places of holding court; the court’s own site lists three staffed locations — Spokane, Yakima, and Richland — putting a federal courthouse within reach of the Spokane metro, the Yakima Valley, and the Tri-Cities.
This is a compact court. Congress allots it four district judgeships, and as of mid-2026 the active bench consists of Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian and Judges Thomas O. Rice, Mary K. Dimke, and Rebecca L. Pennell, per the court’s own roster. Five senior district judges continue to take cases, and two magistrate judges — James A. Goeke and Alexander C. Ekstrom — handle initial appearances, detention hearings, and referred pretrial matters. On a bench this size, counsel appear before the same handful of judges repeatedly, so knowing each judge’s practices carries unusual weight. Appellate review belongs to the Ninth Circuit.
Practice in the district runs on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure plus the court’s local rules — including Local Rule 83.2, the bar-admission and appearance rule that governs how out-of-district attorneys come into a case. Getting those mechanics right at the outset keeps the focus where it belongs: on the defense itself.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
Everything federal comes through this court: drug conspiracies moving along the I-90 and Yakima Valley corridors, firearms charges, fraud and white-collar matters tied to federal contracts and programs, and violent-crime prosecutions arising on the district’s tribal lands. The procedural arc, though, is consistent from case to case.
First comes the investigation — DEA or FBI agents, a target letter, or a grand jury subpoena may be the earliest visible sign. An indictment typically follows, then the initial appearance and arraignment, usually before one of the district’s two magistrate judges. The case then moves through discovery and motion practice toward either a plea agreement or trial, with sentencing to follow on conviction. Stage-by-stage detail lives in our federal criminal process hub.
Our role spans that entire arc — challenging stops, searches, and wiretaps in the drug cases this district sees so many of, contesting loss calculations and intent in fraud matters, negotiating hard when a resolution makes sense, and trying the case when the government’s proof deserves a jury’s scrutiny.
Applied Insight: This district still tries cases — 13 criminal trials in FY2024, a rate three times that of neighboring Oregon. That changes the negotiating dynamic: prosecutors here know a trial demand is credible, and defendants benefit when their counsel prepares every case as if a jury will eventually hear it.
What the District’s Caseload Shows
The Sentencing Commission’s FY2024 packet for the Eastern District of Washington counts 286 individuals sentenced. Drug trafficking led with 120 cases (42.0%), followed by firearms offenses at 17.5% — well above the 13.2% national share — and fraud, theft, and embezzlement at 10.1%. Sexual abuse (5.6%) and child sexual abuse material (4.9%) together formed another significant block, much of it investigated by federal task forces operating across the district’s rural counties.
The drug profile is unlike almost anywhere else: methamphetamine was the primary substance in 70.0% of the district’s FY2024 drug cases, dwarfing the 45.7% national figure, with fentanyl at 27.5% and virtually nothing else registering. Meth cases bring their own battlegrounds — mandatory minimums keyed to quantity, the Guidelines’ harsher treatment of high-purity “actual” methamphetamine, and conspiracy attributions that sweep in conduct far beyond a single transaction. Each is a place where defense work changes outcomes.
At sentencing, the district’s judges imposed within-Guidelines sentences in 28.3% of FY2024 cases — below the 45.7% national average — and went under the range by variance in 47.2%. Substantial-assistance departures under §5K1.1 figured in 22.0% of sentences, more than double the national rate, which tells you how central the cooperation calculus is to drug litigation here. Deciding whether cooperation, mitigation, or trial best serves a client is the strategic heart of an Eastern District case.
Firearms Prosecutions After Bruen
With firearms cases filling 17.5% of the docket, the Second Amendment fight matters here. In United States v. Duarte, 137 F.4th 743 (9th Cir. 2025) (en banc), the Ninth Circuit held that the felon-in-possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), is constitutional as applied to non-violent felons — while the Third Circuit’s en banc decision in Range went the other way for its defendant, and the Supreme Court declined review of Duarte in January 2026. The split remains open and fast-moving, so preserving the constitutional challenge in a § 922(g)(1) case remains sound practice even though Duarte currently controls in this district. A related front matters in a meth-heavy district like this one: in United States v. Hemani, No. 24-1234 (U.S. 2026), decided June 18, 2026, the Supreme Court held that prosecuting a defendant under § 922(g)(3)’s unlawful-drug-user provision violated the Second Amendment as applied to him, so any firearms charge that turns on a client’s alleged drug use now demands a hard, as-applied constitutional look.
Sentencing enhancements draw scrutiny too. Under Erlinger v. United States, 602 U.S. 821 (2024), a jury — not the judge — must find that prior offenses occurred on different occasions before the Armed Career Criminal Act’s 15-year minimum can apply, a holding with real consequences for repeat-offender firearms prosecutions in this district.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Hanford Fraud File
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington works from Spokane with coverage across the district. Its leadership picture calls for precision: as of mid-2026 the district has no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney, and the office is led by Pete Serrano, who serves — per the office’s own site — as Special Attorney to the Attorney General and First Assistant United States Attorney. Recent prosecutions range from fraud with witness tampering to online sexual extortion and a 240-month wildfire-arson sentence.
What sets this district’s white-collar enforcement apart is Hanford. The Department of Energy’s cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site pumps billions in federal contracts into the Tri-Cities, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office polices that money aggressively. CH2M Hill Hanford Group agreed to pay $18.5 million to resolve civil and criminal liability for fraudulent time-card billing on the site; Washington River Protection Solutions later paid $6.5 million over fraud allegations; and the government has since filed a False Claims Act complaint against Hanford Mission Integration Solutions alleging fraudulent labor overcharging. For contractors, subcontractors, and site employees, federal fraud exposure at Hanford is not hypothetical.
These cases live in billing records, labor codes, and certifications, and they often run on civil and criminal tracks at once. Defending them means mastering the documents before the government’s narrative hardens — and managing parallel-proceeding risk so that statements in one forum do not become evidence in the other. Our federal fraud defense practice is built for exactly that posture.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
A conviction in Spokane, Yakima, or Richland can be challenged. The direct appeal runs to the Ninth Circuit, and the window is short — Rule 4(b) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure makes the criminal notice of appeal due, as a general matter, 14 days after judgment enters. Missing it forfeits issues that might otherwise have won a new trial or a lower sentence, so the appeal decision should be made before sentencing day, not after.
After the appeal, the fight returns home: a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion attacking an Eastern District of Washington conviction is filed in this district, and our federal post-conviction relief practice handles that litigation. We also bring compassionate release motions for clients sentenced here — Ninth Circuit courts were the country’s most receptive to such motions in FY2025, granting nearly one in three — and the Ninth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Keller, 2 F.4th 1278 (9th Cir. 2021), underscores the procedural threshold: the statute requires a request to the warden followed by exhaustion or the lapse of 30 days, and courts must enforce that requirement when the government invokes it. Because all of this work is governed by national law, our appellate and post-conviction practice serves Eastern District clients without regard to geography.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Our route into this court is Local Rule 83.2(c): pro hac vice admission is sought by motion — the district uses no separate application form — accompanied by the court’s filing fee. Once admitted for the case, out-of-district counsel registers for electronic filing and practices on the same footing as any member of the district’s bar.
Federal practice has always worked this way: the criminal statutes, the Rules, and the Sentencing Guidelines are identical in Spokane and in every other federal courthouse, and courts admit qualified outside counsel for specific cases as a matter of routine. A defendant in this district is not limited to the lawyers within driving distance of the courthouse.
What should weigh most is command of federal criminal litigation itself — the Guidelines, the appellate record, the post-conviction vehicles. Elizabeth Franklin-Best represents federal defendants in the Eastern District of Washington through admission pro hac vice, and the record behind that work is substantial: she has handled more than 330 federal proceedings, including over 100 appeals, and has been admitted to and appeared in all twelve federal circuits and the United States Supreme Court. Chambers USA 2026 ranks her for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and The Best Lawyers in America 2026 recognizes her as a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice. Her work for Eastern District of Washington clients spans trial defense, direct appeal, and collateral review, the Ninth Circuit included.
Frequently Asked Questions
What area does the Eastern District of Washington cover?
Twenty counties east of the Cascade Mountains’ summit, taking in Spokane, the Yakima Valley, the Tri-Cities, and the Palouse. Staffed courthouses operate in Spokane, Yakima, and Richland, and the governing statute also names Walla Walla as a place of holding court.
Who prosecutes federal crimes in the Eastern District of Washington?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington, based in Spokane. As of mid-2026 the district has no Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney; Pete Serrano leads the office as Special Attorney to the Attorney General and First Assistant United States Attorney.
Which appeals court covers the Eastern District of Washington?
Direct appeals go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The criminal notice of appeal must generally be filed within 14 days of the entry of judgment, so appellate strategy should be set before sentencing concludes.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the Eastern District of Washington?
Investigation, indictment, initial appearance and arraignment, discovery and pretrial motions, then plea or trial and sentencing. In FY2024 about 95.5% of the district’s cases ended in guilty pleas — but its 4.5% trial rate is comparatively high, three times Oregon’s.
Can an out-of-state lawyer represent me in the Eastern District of Washington?
Yes. Under Local Rule 83.2(c), an attorney admitted elsewhere moves for pro hac vice admission in the specific case; there is no separate application form, and a filing fee applies. Federal law and procedure are the same in every district, so this is routine.
Does the firm handle federal cases in the Eastern District of Washington?
It does. We defend clients in this district at the trial level, take their appeals to the Ninth Circuit, and litigate Section 2255, compassionate-release, and related post-conviction matters, entering each case through the court’s pro hac vice procedure.
What federal crimes are most common in eastern Washington?
Drug trafficking led the district’s FY2024 sentencings at 42%, with methamphetamine the primary drug in 70% of drug cases — one of the most meth-concentrated dockets in the country. Firearms offenses followed at 17.5%, then fraud at about 10%.
What is the Hanford fraud connection in this district?
The Department of Energy’s Hanford cleanup makes the Tri-Cities a hub of federal contracting, and contractor billing has drawn repeated enforcement. That includes a combined civil-and-criminal resolution with CH2M Hill Hanford Group over time-card fraud, and later settlements and False Claims Act litigation involving other site contractors.
How many federal judges sit in the Eastern District of Washington?
Four district judgeships are allotted to the district. As of mid-2026, Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian sits with Judges Thomas O. Rice, Mary K. Dimke, and Rebecca L. Pennell, joined by five senior district judges and two magistrate judges.
Discuss Your Eastern District of Washington Case With Us
A meth-conspiracy indictment in Yakima, a Hanford contracting investigation, a Ninth Circuit appeal, or a Section 2255 motion in Spokane — each demands counsel who knows this district’s numbers, judges, and rules. Book a paid, one-hour initial consultation and we will give you a candid read on where the case stands.