File photo: On Thursday, June 8, 2017, former FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Senate Building on Capitol Hill.
Cherise May | Null Photo | Getty Images
Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with federal crimes for the third time, according to court documents released Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., at Comey’s request.
Mr. Comey is accused in a new lawsuit of knowingly transmitting information related to national defense to a person who was not entitled to receive it.
He is also charged with colluding with others to violate a law that prohibits the sharing of such information.
The charging document, known as an information, says Comey “through one or more co-conspirators” directed anonymous individuals “to disclose national defense information to reporters at national news publications.”
The information relates to an “alleged disclosure of classified information” to the New York Times dated October 5, 2016, according to Comey’s court filing, which seeks to dismiss the new lawsuit.
Mr. Comey’s lawyers told the judge in their filing that the alleged revelations were “investigated by two separate U.S. attorneys over the past decade, both of whom have declined to prosecute.”
Comey has been repeatedly targeted by the Justice Department under President Donald Trump, who fired him as FBI director in 2017. Since then, both men have been fiercely critical of each other.
The Justice Department filed the information against Comey on October 5, asking a judge to seal the information because of the risk that making the charges public would jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation. Judge Trevor McFadden granted the request that day.
Mr. Comey’s lawyers, who the Justice Department acknowledged should be informed, filed a motion on October 9 to dismiss the case, saying the 10-year statute of limitations for indicting a grand jury in connection with the October 5, 2016 events had expired.
Mr. Comey’s lawyers accused the Justice Department of filing “incomplete information under seal” to defer the statute of limitations.
Lawyers asked McFadden on Monday to unseal the information, and a judge agreed.
Separately, Comey is currently seeking to dismiss an indictment obtained by the Justice Department in federal court in North Carolina, charging him with threatening President Trump’s life by posting photos of seashells on social media. He previously won the dismissal of another indictment charging him with lying to Congress.
The new criminal charges emerged hours after a federal judge in New York ruled last year that the Justice Department illegally fired Comey’s daughter, Maureen Comey, as an assistant attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“They’re back again,” James Comey said in a Substack video message referring to the new incident.
“It would be almost strange if this wasn’t such an egregious abuse of the Department of Justice. We can’t be numb to it,” he said. “Nothing has changed for me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary.”
“And I remain fortunate to have a wonderful family and an incredible group of lawyers who will stand in court and fight this case and what will happen next,” Comey said. “The next few years are going to be tough for all of us. It’s really important that we stand up straight and keep our faith in America.”
In a pending indictment in North Carolina, Comey is accused of threatening President Trump’s life in late April by posting a photo of seashells arranged in the numbers 86 47 on a beach on Instagram.
Prosecutors allege that the number “86,” often used in restaurants to indicate that a menu item is no longer available, was a code meant to hint to someone that Trump, the 47th president of the United States, had been killed.
Comey has denied any wrongdoing in the case and is asking a judge to dismiss the charges.
Comey was first indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia in September 2025 on charges of false statements and obstruction in connection with his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020.
In his testimony, Comey denied that he allowed another person at the FBI to be an anonymous source for reporting on the investigation and emails from when Hillary Clinton was the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.
That first indictment was dismissed by a judge on November 24, 2025, after the judge ruled that the appointment of then-interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Harrigan, who obtained the indictment, was invalid.
On the same day that the judge dismissed Mr. Comey’s case on that basis, the same judge also dismissed an unrelated indictment against New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who had been charged with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a mortgage obtained by Mr. Harrigan in 2020.
Like Comey, James has been a harsh critic of Trump and has been the target of the president’s ire.
