James Comey Faces Third Federal Criminal Case
Former FBI Director James Comey faces a third federal criminal case after a charging document was unsealed Monday in Washington, D.C., at his request. Prosecutors accuse him of knowingly communicating national defense information to someone unauthorized to receive it and conspiring to share such information. The document alleges that Comey directed an unnamed person, through intermediaries, to disclose information to a reporter.
Comey’s lawyers say the allegations concern a purported disclosure of classified information to The New York Times on October 5, 2016. They say two U.S. attorneys previously investigated the matter and declined to prosecute.
The Justice Department filed the document under seal on October 5, citing concern that publication could compromise an ongoing investigation. Comey’s attorneys moved to dismiss the case on October 9. They argue that the ten-year deadline for obtaining a grand jury indictment had passed and that filing a document known as an “information” did not preserve the case. The judge unsealed it after Comey’s lawyers requested its release.
Comey is also seeking dismissal of a pending North Carolina indictment alleging that an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged as “86 47” threatened President Donald Trump. Prosecutors contend that the numbers conveyed a threat; Comey denies wrongdoing. An earlier indictment concerning Comey’s 2020 congressional testimony was dismissed in November 2025 after a judge found that the prosecutor who obtained it had been improperly appointed.
Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017, and the two have since criticized each other publicly. Responding to the new case, Comey called it an abuse of the Justice Department and said he was innocent. Separately, a federal judge in New York ruled Monday that the department had unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter, former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey. The ruling concerned her employment and was separate from the criminal cases against her father.