Justice Department Files Third Case Against James Comey, Alleging He Directed a 2016 Leak of Defense Information

Since the Justice Department first indicted James Comey in September 2025, the former FBI director has faced one dismissed case, one pending case in North Carolina, and now a third. Court records made public Monday, Oct. 26, show prosecutors charged him with two counts tied to national defense information.

The counts are knowingly communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, and conspiring with others to violate the law against sharing it. Prosecutors allege that in October 2016, while Comey was FBI director, he "through one or more co-conspirators" directed an unnamed individual to disclose that information to a reporter for a national news publication.

A charging document, not an indictment

This is not a grand jury indictment. Prosecutors used an information, a charging document typically used for defendants who plan to plead guilty. Comey has not pleaded guilty and has no plans to.

The filing was made in U.S. District Court in Washington on Oct. 5, exactly 10 years after the alleged conduct. A Justice Department spokesperson said it was a "waiverless criminal information" filed to toll the statute of limitations. The department called that "a widely recognized practice in federal court" that "has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals."

The department added that "this is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."

The filing does not say what document was disclosed, who the unnamed individual is, who the "co-conspirators" are, or which reporter and publication received the information. The Justice Department has not said.

Comey's response

Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said his client "steadfastly maintains his innocence."

Comey addressed the case himself in a video on Substack. "Well, they're back — again," he said. He called the prosecution "an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to."

"Nothing's changed with me. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary," he said. He also warned that "the next couple of years are going to be hard for all of us."

The two earlier cases

The first case came in September 2025, when a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Comey on false-statement and obstruction charges over his Sept. 30, 2020, Senate Judiciary Committee testimony. Comey won dismissal of that indictment.

The second came in late April 2026, when a North Carolina federal court indicted him on charges of threatening the president over an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read "86 47." Prosecutors say "86," a restaurant term for an item that is no longer available, was code for killing Trump, the 47th president.

In an August filing, the DOJ cited a former mob boss who told the FBI that in his world "everyone knew" 86 meant "kill." The department argued that given Comey's experience as FBI director, there was "no way that Comey did not know that."

Comey says he had no violent intent and deleted the post once he saw how it could be read. His motions to dismiss argue the prosecution is vindictive and the post is protected by the First Amendment. His arraignment was postponed past its already-postponed Sept. 30 date, and he is still seeking dismissal.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Epoch Times the dismissal odds in that case could be as high as 80 to 90 percent.

The timing

The new filing came to light the same day a federal judge in New York ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, last year from her job as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. She had worked on cases involving Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jeffrey Epstein. The filing was made weeks before that ruling, and no source has linked the two.

Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017. The two men have been public adversaries since.

What comes next

Prosecutors have the benefit of a routine procedural tool. A tolling filing keeps a case alive when a limitations deadline is close, and the DOJ says courts have approved the practice.

But a tolling filing is not a case. No grand jury has voted on these counts, no judge has tested the allegations, and the public does not know what material is at issue. Prosecutors face a decade-old event with a gap in the record, and the department's two earlier efforts against Comey have not produced a conviction.

The unresolved questions are whether the DOJ will seek a grand jury indictment on the Espionage Act counts, and how the North Carolina judge rules on Comey's pending motion to dismiss.