Comey Charged a Third Time
The Justice Department filed two Espionage Act counts against former FBI Director James Comey over a 2016 New York Times article. It is a criminal information, not a grand jury indictment, and his lawyers have moved to dismiss it.
The Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey with two counts under the Espionage Act: transmitting information related to the national defense to a person not entitled to receive it, and conspiring with others to do so. The charges were filed as a criminal information in federal court in Washington, a document prosecutors can file without a grand jury vote, and U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden has unsealed the case. Comey has not been indicted in the case.
The filing concerns an October 5, 2016, New York Times article headlined "Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter." Prosecutors allege Comey directed staff to speak to the Times reporter about the accuracy of an earlier Reuters report. The Justice Department filed the information under seal on October 5, 2026, and a department spokesperson said the filing was meant to "toll" the 10-year statute of limitations. Comey's lawyers moved on October 9 to dismiss it, arguing the time limit had run out, that the law required an indictment, and that prosecutors twice investigated the matter during the first Trump administration and brought no charges. Comey, in a video, said, "I'm still innocent." It is the third federal case against him.
Washington — The Justice Department has charged James Comey, the former FBI director, with two counts of violating the Espionage Act, according to a court filing McFadden unsealed. Comey has not been indicted in the case.
What the charges say
Count one charges Comey with transmitting a document related to the national defense to a person not entitled to receive it, under 18 U.S.C. § 793(d). Count two charges him with conspiring with "others known and unknown" to commit the first count. The charging document says Comey, "through one or more co-conspirators," directed an unnamed person "to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication."
The conduct alleged is from October 5, 2016, when Comey was FBI director. The case rests on that day's New York Times article, by reporter Charlie Savage, about Yahoo and government email surveillance. In a filing unsealed Monday, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote that the 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," and that Comey "directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy concerns related to the Reuters article, and thereby illegally transferred classified information."
An information, not an indictment
A criminal information is a charge filed by prosecutors; it does not require a grand jury vote or a magistrate judge's finding of probable cause. NBC News reported that Comey cannot be tried on an information alone unless he waives indictment, and that prosecutors would still have to seek an indictment before he could be arrested, arraigned or tried. The Guardian likewise reported that prosecutors will eventually have to have the charges approved by a grand jury.
The Justice Department filed the information and a motion to seal on October 5, citing unindicted and unnamed co-conspirators, and McFadden granted the sealing the same day, CNBC reported. A department spokesperson said the filing was meant to preserve the statute of limitations. "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 statement said. "This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
What Comey's side says
Comey's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss on October 9. They argue that both counts rest on the October 5, 2016, disclosure, that the 10-year limit to obtain a grand jury indictment expired exactly 10 years later, and that an information cannot satisfy the law. The filing also says the disclosure "was investigated by two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years. Both declined to prosecute." Prosecutors maintain the charges are timely and that Comey's lawyers misread the law, NBC News reported.
Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement that the information "purports to charge Mr. Comey with crimes he did not commit," and that two teams of prosecutors investigated the article during the first Trump administration and each time determined that no charges should be brought against anyone. "Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open," he said.
In a video posted online Monday, Comey said: "Well, they're back again. 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. Nothing's changed with me. I'm still innocent."
The judge's order
McFadden unsealed the case on Comey's request; the government did not oppose it. In his order, the judge wrote that Comey "is aware of the criminal information and has offered to 'self-surrender,'" so sealing was no longer needed to help the government apprehend him. The order says the court will address the remaining issues in the motion to dismiss "in due course." He did not rule on the merits.
The earlier cases
President Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017. In September 2025, a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted him on charges of making a false statement and obstruction in connection with 2020 Senate testimony. A judge dismissed that indictment on November 24, 2025, after ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who obtained it, had been invalidly appointed.
In April, Comey was indicted in North Carolina on a charge of threatening Trump's life by posting an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read "86 47." The case is pending, and Comey is seeking its dismissal. He denies wrongdoing in both.
The new case became public on the same day a federal judge in New York ruled that the Justice Department had unlawfully fired Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, last year as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, CNBC and NBC News reported.