Former FBI Director James Comey was slapped with a fresh set of criminal charges Monday for allegedly leaking sensitive national defense information to the New York Times.
The two counts against Comey mark the third time the Department of Justice has gone after the ex-lawman and Trump administration critic since the start of President Trump’s second term.
Prosecutors accuse Comey of “knowingly and wittingly” transmitting national defense information as well as conspiring to do so in a “criminal information” filing made in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
The alleged crime took place on Oct. 4-5, 2016.
Comey “through one and more co-conspirators directed Individual #1 to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication” in violation of federal law, according to prosecutors.
The new charges stem from an Oct. 5, 2016, article in the New York Times, headlined “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 took place while Comey was head of the FBI under former President Barack Obama. He would be fired by Trump in May 2017.
“Well, they’re back, again,” Comey said in a video posted on his Substack. “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.”
“Nothing’s changed with me,” the former FBI chief added. “I’m still innocent, and I’m still not afraid of these people and I still believe in the independent judiciary.”
The case was filed under seal by the DOJ on Oct. 5 and made public after Comey’s lawyers filed a motion to unseal it.
Comey’s attorneys have also asked the court to dismiss the case.
A Justice Department spokesperson told The Post that the DOJ “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 continued. “This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further.”
The new charges against Comey surfaced on the same day a US district judge ruled that the former FBI director’s daughter, Maurene Comey, was illegally fired from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York last year.
The judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate Maurene Comey and provide her with back pay.
James Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury last September on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice. The case was dismissed after a judge ruled Lindsey Halligan, then US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was unlawfully appointed.
The former FBI director was indicted again in April on charges of threatening to kill Trump in May 2025 when he posted a photograph on Instagram of seashells arranged to read “8647.”
Comey is still awaiting trial in the seashell case.
