Former FBI Director James Comey is facing criminal charges once again, this time for allegedly disclosing classified information. Comey was hit with two charges on October 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and the charging document was made public on Monday.
This marks the third criminal case the Trump Justice Department has brought against Comey. The department also notified him that the government is seeking to seize all property derived from proceeds traceable to the alleged offense.
The new charges stem from Comey’s alleged disclosure of classified information to the New York Times. According to prosecutors, Comey reached out to the paper to correct an October 5, 2016 article titled “Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter.”
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak said the investigation uncovered evidence that Comey “sought to correct misinformation which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before.” Farahnak said the evidence shows Comey directed staff to speak with a reporter about specific accuracy concerns related to the Reuters article, “and thereby illegally transferred classified information.”
The case has been assigned to Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee. Comey’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the charges are invalid because Comey has not been indicted by a grand jury, and that the case should be thrown out because the charges fall outside the statute of limitations.
Comey lashed out at the Justice Department in a video message posted to his Substack. “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,” he said. “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.”
Comey was previously indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of making false statements to Congress, a case that was ultimately dismissed. Last year, he was also indicted in North Carolina on charges related to an Instagram post, in what has become known as the “seashells” Trump threat case.
