The Trump administration indicts former FBI Director James Comey for the third time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is trying to prosecute James Comey over what it calls a decade-old leak of classified information, an effort that the former FBI director’s lawyers immediately rejected as invalid and outside the legal time limit during which the Justice Department can file criminal charges.

The Justice Department’s allegations were revealed Monday in newly unsealed court documents that shed light on a closed-door battle that represents a sharp escalation in the administration’s targeting of Comey, a longtime critic and foe of President Donald Trump who has faced two other criminal cases since the Republican returned to the White House last year. The efforts to pursue Comey are also part of a series of politically charged investigative actions the department has undertaken in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections.

“Well, they’re back, again,” Comey said in a video statement released after the documents were released. “It would almost be funny if this wasn’t such an appalling abuse of the Justice Department – ​​one that we cannot remain insensitive to. Nothing has changed with me; I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid of these people – and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary.”

The Justice Department, for its part, said it filed what’s known as a “criminal information” to extend the 10-year statute of limitations for filing suit.

“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,” a department spokesperson said.

A criminal information is typically filed with the defendant’s consent accompanying a plea agreement, but Comey’s lawyers have made clear they intend to fight the charges as invalid and barred by the statute of limitations.

“For the third time in just over a year, the Justice Department has attempted to charge Mr. Comey with a federal crime. Mr. Comey firmly maintains his innocence,” his lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement.

The allegation has already been investigated

The latest allegation concerns an October 2016 New York Times article regarding a secret court order requiring Yahoo to scan emails for messages potentially linked to a foreign terrorist organization. The article cited two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity about a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge’s order barring Yahoo from making public disclosures.

Federal authorities, including then-special counsel John Durham, began investigating the FBI’s Oct. 5, 2016, disclosure to the New York Times in early 2017. Durham wrote a classified memo in December 2018 recommending against bringing criminal charges against anyone in connection with the disclosure, Comey’s lawyers said in a recent court filing.

In January 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia opened a second investigation into the same case under the code name “Tropical Vortex.” But this investigation was closed without any charges being filed in February 2020.

“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. It purports to accuse Mr. Comey of crimes he did not commit,” Fitzgerald said.

Trump and Comey have a long and difficult history

The first case against Comey was dismissed after the judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought the indictment was illegally appointed. Comey was charged in a separate case in April over a social media post showing seashells on the beach that officials said posed a threat against the president.

Comey was FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and previously a senior Justice Department official in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.

But the relationship was strained from the start, notably after Comey resisted a request from Trump during a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president — an overture that so angered the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 as part of an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. That investigation, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, found that although Russia had interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team appreciated its help, there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal collaboration.