Former FBI Director James Comey faced a new set of criminal charges Monday over allegations that he leaked sensitive national defense information to The New York Times.
The two-count filing represents the third time the Department of Justice has pursued charges against Comey, a former law enforcement official and vocal critic of the Trump administration, since President Trump began his second term.
Federal prosecutors allege that Comey “knowingly and wittingly” transmitted national defense information and conspired to do so, according to a criminal information filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The alleged conduct occurred on Oct. 4 and 5, 2016.
According to prosecutors, Comey “through one and more co-conspirators directed Individual #1 to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication,” in violation of federal law.
The charges are tied to an Oct. 5, 2016, New York Times article titled “Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter,” written by reporter Charlie Savage.
“The United States’ investigation has uncovered evidence that former FBI Director, James B. Comey, sought to correct misinformation which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before,” Special Assistant US Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote in a filing, according to NBC News.
“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.”
The alleged disclosure occurred while Comey was serving as FBI director under former President Barack Obama. President Trump dismissed him in May 2017.
“Well, they’re back, again,” Comey said in a video posted to his Substack account. “It would almost be funny if it wasn’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to.”
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“Nothing’s changed with me,” the former FBI director added. “I’m still innocent, and I’m still not afraid of these people and I still believe in the independent judiciary.”
The Justice Department initially filed the case under seal on Oct. 5. It became public after Comey’s attorneys asked the court to unseal the document.
Comey’s lawyers have also petitioned the court to dismiss the charges.
A Justice Department spokesperson told The Post that the agency “filed a waiverless criminal information to toll the statute of limitations as it relates to allegations concerning former FBI Director Comey.”
“Filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals,” the spokesperson said. “This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further.”
The latest charges were announced the same day a US district judge ruled that Maurene Comey, James Comey’s daughter, had been unlawfully fired from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York last year.
The judge directed the Trump administration to reinstate Maurene Comey and award her back pay.
A federal grand jury indicted James Comey last September on allegations of making false statements and obstructing justice. A judge later dismissed that case after determining that Lindsey Halligan, then the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, had been unlawfully appointed.
Comey was indicted again in April over allegations that he threatened to kill Trump in May 2025 by posting an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged to spell “8647.”
He is still awaiting trial in the seashell case.
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