DOJ charges Comey for third time

Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged again by the Justice Department (DOJ) for allegedly disclosing sensitive national defense information in 2016, according to newly unsealed court documents .

Comey was charged with two counts of transmitting information and conspiring to transmit information related to national defense matters on Oct. 5, but a federal judge granted his request to unseal the complaint Monday.

The DOJ alleges that Comey “through one and more co-conspirators” directed an individual to share classified information with a reporter from a national news organization in October 2016, according to the charging document. The publication is identified in other court documents as The New York Times.

A separate unsealed DOJ filing cited an Oct. 5, 2016, article by Times reporter Charlie Savage that contained information “significantly similar” to talking points that had been circulated in an internal government email hours before it was published.

“The United States’ investigation has uncovered evidence that former FBI Director, James B. Comey, sought to correct information which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before,” DOJ attorneys wrote. “The investigation has uncovered evidence that Mr. Comey directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy concerns related to the Reuters article, and thereby illegally transferred classified information.”

Comey denied any wrongdoing in a video posted to his Substack account on Monday afternoon, blasting the prosecution as an “appalling abuse of the Department of Justice.”

“Nothing’s changed with me,” he said. “I’m still innocent but I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent judiciary.”

Comey has moved to dismiss the case. His lawyers noted in court filings that the disclosure had been previously investigated by two separate U.S. attorney’s offices, both of whom declined to bring charges.

They also argued that the charges should be thrown out because the 10-year statute of limitations for certain espionage-related offenses “explicitly demands” an indictment, which has not been secured in Comey’s case.

The government brought the charges by a “criminal information,” which does not require a grand jury.

“This Court should enforce the text that Congress wrote and dismiss the information as time barred,” Comey’s lawyers wrote.

This is the third time that the Justice Department has pursued charges against Comey as part of what critics see as a push to target and prosecute President Trump’s perceived political foes.

Comey is already facing federal charges in North Carolina in connection with a now deleted social media post of seashells arranged to read “86 47,” which the Justice Department has claimed was a threat to Trump’s life.

A first attempt to prosecute Comey for allegedly lying in 2020 congressional testimony collapsed after a federal judge found the U.S. attorney handpicked to the pursue the charges, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed.