James Comey Charged a Third Time as Prosecutors Revive Decade-Old Classified Leak Allegation

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (TodayViralUSA) — Federal prosecutors have charged former FBI Director James Comey with transmitting national defense information and conspiring to do so, opening a third criminal case against one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent critics in little more than a year. Comey’s lawyers say the case is invalid and was filed too late.

The charges, contained in court papers unsealed Monday in federal court in Washington, had been kept under seal since Oct. 5. They were brought through a criminal information, a charging document filed by prosecutors, rather than a grand jury indictment. Comey has not been indicted.

A decade-old news story at the center

The case centers on an Oct. 5, 2016, New York Times article about Yahoo assisting U.S. email surveillance. In a filing, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote that investigators found evidence Comey, then FBI director, directed staff to talk to the reporter about accuracy concerns with an earlier Reuters story, “and thereby illegally transferred classified information.”

Comey’s attorneys argue both counts rest solely on that single alleged disclosure, made exactly 10 years before prosecutors filed the information, and say the government ran out of time because the 10-year limitations period required a grand jury indictment. They filed a motion to dismiss 10 days ago.

Justice Department defends the filing

A Justice Department spokesperson said the filing was meant to pause the statute of limitations, calling it “a widely recognized practice in federal court” that multiple appeals courts have approved, and declined further comment on what it described as an ongoing investigation.

Legal experts were skeptical. Greg Rosen, a former supervisor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, told NBC News that a placeholder charge filed “on the last possible day, under seal, in the third case against the same man” was “exactly what it appears to be: vindictive.”

Under federal rules, Comey cannot be tried on the information alone unless he waives indictment. Prosecutors would still need to secure an indictment before he could be arrested, arraigned and tried. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden unsealed the case, noting that the underlying facts had already drawn considerable press coverage.

“They’re back again”

Comey responded in a video posted to Substack. “Well, they’re back again. It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice,” he said, adding that he is “still innocent” and still believes in the independent federal judiciary.

His attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the article had been examined by two separate teams of prosecutors during Trump’s first term, and both concluded no one should be charged. “Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open,” he said.

A pattern of prosecutions

The first case against Comey in Trump’s second term was dismissed by a judge. In April, he was indicted in North Carolina on a charge of threatening the president over a social media image of seashells arranged to read “8647.” He has maintained his innocence in that case.

The new charges surfaced the same day a federal judge ruled that his daughter, former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, had been unlawfully fired by the Justice Department and ordered her reinstated with back pay.