Photo: Federal Bureau of Investigation / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The Trump administration has opened a third criminal case against former FBI director James Comey, accusing him of an unlawful leak of national security information ten years ago. The allegations surfaced on Monday, October 26, when previously sealed documents were made public in federal court in Washington, DC.
Comey, one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent critics, has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers say the case is both invalid and too late.
What prosecutors allege
The filing sets out two counts linked to the unlawful sharing of information related to national defence. It centres on a New York Times report from October 5, 2016, by journalist Charlie Savage, which described how Yahoo had been ordered to scan traffic on its platform for a particular computer signature said to be linked to a terrorist group. Prosecutors claim Comey directed that sensitive details be passed to the reporter.
Unusually, the Justice Department did not seek a grand jury indictment. It instead filed what is known as a criminal information, a route that lets prosecutors bring charges without a grand jury’s approval. A department spokesperson said this was done to pause the 10-year statute of limitations, calling it a widely recognised practice approved by several federal appeals courts, and declined further comment because the investigation is ongoing.
Comey and his lawyers push back
In a video statement posted after the documents were released, Comey described the case as political retribution.
Nothing’s changed with me; I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary.
James Comey, former FBI director
His defence lawyer, Pat Fitzgerald, said the government had already examined the same matter twice and both times decided not to charge anyone. He argued that the filing, made a decade after the article appeared, had been neither approved by a judge nor issued by a grand jury, and claimed it accused Comey of crimes he did not commit. The unsealed documents also reveal that the dispute had been playing out behind closed doors for about a month.
Why it matters: a pattern of cases
This is the third attempt to prosecute Comey since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. An earlier case accusing him of lying to Congress was thrown out after a judge ruled that the prosecutor who brought it had been unlawfully appointed. Earlier this year, the department also charged him with threatening the president over a 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged to read “86 47”, which prosecutors say encouraged violence against Trump. Comey denies that charge too.
The feud dates back to Trump’s first term. Comey, appointed FBI director by Barack Obama, was fired by Trump in May 2017 during the FBI’s investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign, an inquiry later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller.
A court setback for the administration on the same day
The new case emerged hours after a federal judge in New York, Jesse Furman, ruled that the Justice Department had illegally fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, from her job as a federal prosecutor in July 2025. The judge ordered her reinstatement with back pay up to December 2025, when she took another job. The department said it disagreed and would appeal.
What happens next
Comey’s lawyers have already argued that the filing is invalid and falls outside the time limit, questions the court in Washington will now have to weigh. Speaking in his video, Comey noted that Trump is only halfway through his second term and suggested he expects further cases against him.
