DOJ Files Third Criminal Case Against James Comey, Alleging 2016 Disclosure of National Defense Information
The Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey with disclosing national defense information in 2016, the third criminal case the department has brought against him since President Donald Trump returned to office. The charges were unsealed Monday.
Prosecutors filed the two-count criminal information under seal on Oct. 5 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It charges Comey with willfully communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d), and with conspiring to do so.
What the Filing Says
The three-page information, which The Digital Free Press reviewed, says that "on or about October 5, 2016," Comey, while entrusted with information relating to the national defense, "knowingly and willfully communicated, delivered, transmitted, and caused that information to be communicated, delivered, and transmitted to a person not entitled to receive it."
The conspiracy count alleges that on Oct. 5, 2016, Comey "through one and more co-conspirators directed Individual #1 to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication." The filing does not describe the information, name the publication or identify Individual #1. It also seeks forfeiture of any proceeds traceable to the offenses.
An information is a charging document filed by prosecutors without a grand jury vote. This one is signed by Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter, Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh and three special assistant U.S. attorneys.
The Statute of Limitations Fight
The information was filed 10 years to the day after the alleged disclosure. The Justice Department said it was filed to pause the statute of limitations while an investigation continues. "The Department filed a waiverless criminal information to toll the statute of limitations as it relates to allegations concerning former FBI Director Comey," a department spokesperson said, according to Fox News. "This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
Comey's lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden to dismiss the case. In a motion filed Oct. 16, they argue that the 10-year limit for these offenses "explicitly demands an indictment," meaning a grand jury must act, and that an information filed by prosecutors does not meet that requirement. The motion also asked the court to unseal the case, which McFadden agreed to do Monday, CNBC reported.
According to the motion, the case centers on an alleged disclosure of classified information to The New York Times on Oct. 5, 2016, which "was investigated by two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years. Both declined to prosecute." The motion says a Connecticut investigation led by then-U.S. Attorney John Durham and a later inquiry by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington both ended without charges, the second in February 2020.
The motion quotes a 2020 FBI memorandum as saying the investigation identified then-FBI General Counsel James Baker as one of two sources for the article, and that Baker told investigators the FBI's chief of staff had instructed him to disclose the information, which Baker understood came from Comey. The motion says Comey "maintains his innocence and categorically denies that he violated the law."
The motion also says prosecutors sought sealing in part because unindicted co-conspirators appear in the information and because publicity "would risk compromising ongoing criminal and grand-jury investigations and could endanger cooperating witnesses."
Comey's Response
Comey denied wrongdoing in a video posted Monday on Substack. "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, according to CNBC. "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."
His attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement that the charges relate to a decade-old newspaper article. "Ten years after the article was published, the government filed an 'information' against Mr Comey that was not approved by a judge nor issued by a grand jury. It purports to charge Mr Comey with crimes he did not commit," Fitzgerald said, as quoted by The Guardian.
The Earlier Cases Against James Comey
Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017. In September 2025, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Comey on false statement and obstruction charges tied to his 2020 Senate testimony. A judge dismissed that case on Nov. 24, 2025, after ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who obtained the indictment, had been invalidly appointed, CNBC reported.
In April, prosecutors in North Carolina charged Comey with threatening the president over an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read "86 47." Comey has denied wrongdoing in that case and has asked a judge to dismiss it.
The new charges became public hours after a federal judge in New York ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, as a federal prosecutor last year. The Digital Free Press reported on that ruling Monday.
Images: E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, Tony Webster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; official FBI portrait of James Comey, Federal Bureau of Investigation, public domain.
Yossi Schmidt, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Free Press
Hold Everyone Accountable.
Sources: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, United States v. Comey, No. 1:26-cr-00229, Criminal Information (Doc. 1), filed Oct. 5, 2026: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297297/gov.uscourts.dcd.297297.1.0.pdf ; James B. Comey Jr.'s Motion to Dismiss Criminal Information (Doc. 11), filed Oct. 16, 2026: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297298/gov.uscourts.dcd.297298.11.0_1.pdf ; Fox News, "Comey faces new DOJ action over alleged national defense disclosure," Oct. 26, 2026: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-seeks-prosecute-comey-over-alleged-national-defense-disclosure ; CNBC, "DOJ charges ex-FBI Director James Comey in new case," Oct. 26, 2026: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/james-comey-indictment-national-defense-doj-trump.html ; The Guardian, "Justice department charges ex-FBI director James Comey for third time," Oct. 26, 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/26/james-comey-charged-doj ; The Digital Free Press, "Judge Rules DOJ Unlawfully Fired Prosecutor Maurene Comey, Orders Back Pay Through December 2025," Oct. 26, 2026: https://www.thedigitalfreepress.com/post/judge-rules-doj-unlawfully-fired-maurene-comey-back-pay
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