FILE PHOTO: Former FBI Director James Comey testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Senate Hart building on Capitol Hill, on Thursday, June 8, 2017.
Cheriss May | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged for the third time with federal crimes, according to a court filing unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., at Comey’s request.
Comey is accused in the new case with knowingly communicating information related to national defense to a person not entitled to receive it.
He is also charged with conspiring with others to violate the law against sharing such information.
The charging document, known as an information, says Comey, “through one or more co-conspirators,” directed an unnamed individual “to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.”
According to a court filing by Comey, who is seeking to dismiss the new case, the information relates to the “alleged disclosure of classified information” to The New York Times on Oct. 5, 2016.
Comey’s lawyers told a judge in that filing that the alleged disclosure “was investigated by two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years. Both declined to prosecute.”
Comey has been repeatedly targeted by the Department of Justice under the administration of President Donald Trump, who fired him as FBI director in 2017. Both men have been fierce critics of one another since then.
The DOJ filed the information against Comey on Oct. 5 and asked a judge to seal it, citing the risk that an ongoing criminal investigation would be compromised by the charges becoming public. Judge Trevor McFadden granted that request that day.
Attorneys for Comey, whom the DOJ agreed should be notified of the information, filed a motion to dismiss the case on Oct. 9, arguing that the 10-year statute of limitations to file a grand jury indictment relating to events of Oct. 5, 2016, had expired.
Comey’s lawyers accused the DOJ of filing “a faulty information under seal” in an effort to put the statute of limitations on hold.
The attorneys on Monday asked McFadden to unseal the information, and the judge agreed to do so.
Comey separately is currently seeking the dismissal of an indictment obtained by the DOJ in North Carolina federal court on charges of threatening Trump’s life by posting a photo of seashells on a beach on social media. He previously successfully won dismissal of another indictment accusing him of falsely testifying to Congress.
The new criminal complaint came to light hours after a federal judge in New York ruled that the Department of Justice had unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, last year as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“Well, they’re back — again,” James Comey said in a video message on Substack addressing the new case.
“It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to,” he said. “Nothing’s changed with me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.”
“And I’m still lucky to have an amazing family and an incredible group of lawyers that will stand up in court and fight the latest and whatever comes after this,” Comey said. “The next couple of years are going to be hard for all of us. It’s really important that we stand straight and keep the faith in America.”
In the pending indictment in North Carolina, Comey in late April was charged with threatening Trump’s life by posting on Instagram a photo of seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers “86 47.”
Prosecutors claim that the number “86” — which is often used in restaurants to indicate a menu item is no longer available — was code for suggesting someone kill Trump, who is the 47th U.S. president.
Comey has denied any wrongdoing in that case and is seeking to have the indictment tossed out by a judge.
Comey was first indicted in September 2025 by a federal grand jury in Virginia on charges of making a false statement and obstruction, in connection with testimony he gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30, 2020.
Comey, in that testimony, denied authorizing another person at the FBI to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an investigation of Hillary Clinton and her emails when she was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.
That first indictment was dismissed by a judge on Nov. 24, 2025, after the judge ruled that Lindsey Halligan, a then-interim U.S. attorney who obtained the indictments, had been invalidly appointed.
On the same day the judge tossed Comey’s case for that reason, the same judge dismissed an unrelated indictment obtained by Halligan against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had been accused of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a home mortgage she obtained in 2020.
James, like Comey, has been a staunch critic of Trump, and a target of the president’s ire.
