Federal prosecutors have charged former FBI Director James Comey with transmitting national defense information and conspiring to transmit national defense information.
It’s the third federal case against Comey, who has been a longtime target of President Donald Trump since he launched the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The case has been under seal since October 5.
Comey’s defense attorneys filed a motion 10 days ago to dismiss the charges. He has not been charged in this case.
Comey responded to the new accusations in a video Monday.
“Well, they’re back. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t such an appalling abuse of the Justice Department, one that we can’t remain insensitive to,” Comey said in a video on Substack after the accusations were made public.
“Nothing has changed for me. I am still innocent. I am still not afraid of these people and I still believe in the independence of the federal judiciary,” he said.
The new accusations stem from an October 5, 2016 New York Times article titled “Yahoo Said It Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter” by journalist Charlie Savage.
“The U.S. investigation uncovered evidence that former FBI Director James B. Comey sought to correct erroneous media reports in Reuters the day before,” Special Assistant United States Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote in a filing unsealed Monday. “The investigation uncovered evidence that Mr. Comey directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy issues related to the investigation. Reuters article, and thus illegally transferred classified information.
Comey’s lawyers argued that both counts “are based exclusively on the alleged disclosure on October 5, 2016, exactly ten years before the government filed criminal information” — and that the charges should be dropped due to statute of limitations concerns.
The case is “time-barred,” they assert, because the government had 10 years to bring suit “by obtaining a grand jury indictment.”
The charges filed constitute a criminal information — essentially a charge filed by prosecutors, not a grand jury indictment — and therefore should be dismissed, they argue.
Comey cannot be tried based solely on criminal information unless he waives the indictment, which would be an unusual move. Prosecutors will still have to seek an indictment, if the court allows it, before Comey can be arrested on the charges against him, arraigned, enter a plea and ultimately stand trial.
The case was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who noted that the facts underlying the investigation “received considerable media coverage.”
McFadden said that while it is not unusual to “initially seal an instrument of indictment,” these are typically sealed only to facilitate the apprehension of a defendant.
Prosecutors argue that the charges are timely and that Comey’s lawyers are misinterpreting the applicable law.
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement that its filing was intended to “stay” or suspend the statute of limitations.
“Filing a criminal complaint to impose the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in the federal courts and has been approved by several circuit courts of appeal. This is an ongoing criminal investigation and we will not comment further,” the spokesperson said.
Comey was the director of the FBI when the Times article was published. Trump fired him in May 2017 after opening an investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential race and its potential ties to the Trump campaign.
Trump has repeatedly called for Comey to be prosecuted in the years since, calling him a “dirty cop” and “sick.”
This criminal case is the third filed against Comey since the start of Trump’s second term.
The first case was thrown out by a judge; the other came on April 28, when Comey was indicted in North Carolina for making threats against Trump by posting an image of seashells arranged to read “8647.” Comey has maintained his innocence.
Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement Monday that the first case was dismissed after “the Justice Department used a person who was not actually a United States Attorney to seek an indictment that was not presented to the grand jury. And it charged Mr. Comey with crimes he did not commit. This case was promptly and properly dismissed.”
“In April 2026, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in the Eastern District of North Carolina regarding Mr. Comey’s publication of a photograph of seashells spelling “8647.” We will not make any comment beyond our statements in this matter,” he added.
Fitzgerald said the most recent case involves an article “that two different teams of prosecutors investigated during the first Trump administration. Both times, the government determined that no charges should be brought against anyone. Now, ten years after the article was published, the government has filed an ‘information’ against Mr. Comey that has not been approved by a judge or issued by a grand jury” and “purports to accuse Mr. Comey of crimes he did not commit.”
“Mr. Comey will fight these accusations vigorously and openly,” he said.
The revelation of the charges comes the same day a federal judge ruled that Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, was illegally fired from the Justice Department last year and ordered her reinstatement.
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