Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with two counts for allegedly leaking sensitive national defence information to the New York Times, according to the New York Post. The charges were filed on Monday and mark the third time the Department of Justice has pursued legal action against Mr Comey since the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term in office.
Details of the Allegations
Prosecutors accuse Mr Comey of “knowingly and wittingly” transmitting national defence information and conspiring to do so in a “criminal information” filing made in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The allegations cover a period from October 4 to 5, 2016, when Mr Comey was head of the FBI under President Barack Obama.
According to prosecutors, Mr Comey “through one and more co-conspirators directed Individual #1 to disclose national defence information to a reporter for a national news publication” in violation of federal law. The new charges stem from a New York Times article published on October 5, 2016, headlined “Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter,” written by reporter Charlie Savage.
Prosecutors’ Claims and Comey’s Response
Special Assistant US Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote in a filing, according to NBC News, that the investigation uncovered evidence that Mr Comey sought to correct misinformation that had appeared in the press via Reuters the day before. The filing stated 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.”
Mr Comey was dismissed by President Trump in May 2017. In a video posted on his Substack, reported by the New York Post, Mr Comey said, “Well, they’re back, again. 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.” He added, “Nothing’s changed with me. I’m still innocent, and I’m still not afraid of these people and I still believe in the independent judiciary.”
Legal Proceedings and Context
The case was filed under seal by the Department of Justice on October 5, 2026, and made public after Mr Comey’s lawyers filed a motion to unseal it. His attorneys have also asked the court to dismiss the case.
A Justice Department spokesperson told The New York Post that the department “filed a waiverless criminal information to toll the statute of limitations as it relates to allegations concerning former FBI Director Comey.” The spokesperson added that 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, and said, “This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further.”
The new charges surfaced on the same day a US district judge ruled that Mr Comey’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.
Mr Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury last September on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice, but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that Lindsey Halligan, then US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was unlawfully appointed. He was indicted again in April on charges of threatening to kill Trump in May 2025, after posting a photograph on Instagram of seashells arranged to read “8647.” Mr Comey is still awaiting trial in the seashell case.
