Comey Faces Third Case as Leak Charges Are Unsealed

Former FBI Director James Comey is facing Comey leak charges in a third criminal case brought by the Trump administration, after a federal judge unsealed papers on Monday (Oct 26) accusing him of passing classified information to a reporter a decade ago, NBC News reported.

Federal prosecutors have charged Comey with transmission of national defense information and conspiracy to transmit national defense information. The case, unsealed by US District Judge Trevor McFadden, had been kept under seal since Oct 5.

What the Comey leak charges allege

The charges stem from an Oct 5, 2016 New York Times article by reporter Charlie Savage about Yahoo helping US email surveillance. According to the filing by Special Assistant US Attorney Dustin Farahnak, investigators found evidence that Comey directed staff to speak to Savage about accuracy concerns over a Reuters article published the day before, and in doing so illegally passed on classified information.

The charges were filed as a criminal information rather than a grand jury indictment. A Justice Department spokesperson said the filing was intended to pause the statute of limitations, describing the matter as an ongoing criminal investigation.

The Associated Press reported that the limitation period had been due to expire earlier this month and that prosecutors used an uncommon legal tactic to try to extend the time to seek an indictment.

Defence seeks dismissal

Comey’s lawyers have asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing both counts are time-barred and that a criminal information is not a valid way to bring them. His attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said two teams of prosecutors had looked into the same article during Trump’s first term and decided no one should be charged.

“Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open,” Fitzgerald said. Comey, in a video posted on Substack on Monday, said he was still innocent and still believed in the independent federal judiciary, calling the case an abuse of the Justice Department.

President Donald Trump said this week he did not know anything about the latest case, before adding, “He’s a dirty cop,” according to the AP. A judge is set to hear arguments on the dismissal bid on Friday (Oct 30), the AP reported.

Two earlier cases

The first criminal case against Comey was dismissed by a judge. Fitzgerald said the department had used a person who was not actually a US attorney to seek an indictment that was not shown to the grand jury.

In a second case, Comey was indicted on April 28, 2026 in the Eastern District of North Carolina over a photo of seashells arranged to read “8647”, which prosecutors charged as a threat against Trump. Comey has maintained his innocence in that case.

On the same day the new charges were unsealed, a federal judge ruled that Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, had been unlawfully fired from the Justice Department last year and ordered her reinstated, NBC News reported.

#latestmalaysia

Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Ex-White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson