Former FBI Director James Comey is facing new federal criminal charges in Washington, D.C., accusing him of unlawfully transmitting sensitive national defense information and conspiring to disclose it to a reporter, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

Prosecutors filed the two-count criminal information under seal on Oct. 5, alleging Comey improperly disclosed national defense information while serving as FBI director in 2016. The charges include unlawfully transmitting national defense information to an unauthorized person and conspiracy to commit that offense.

According to the filing, Comey allegedly directed an individual, through one or more co-conspirators, to disclose national defense information to a reporter at a national news publication on Oct. 5, 2016.

The filing came exactly 10 years after the alleged conduct on Oct. 5, 2016, a significant detail because the charges carry a 10-year statute of limitations.

Comey was charged by criminal information — charges filed by prosecutors — instead of an indictment by a federal grand jury in this case. He has not yet entered a plea.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the proceedings unsealed Monday at Comey’s request, which federal prosecutors did not oppose.

Comey has already moved to dismiss the case, according to court filings, arguing that two other prosecutors previously declined to bring these charges against the former FBI director.

“The information in this case centers on alleged disclosure of classified information to the New York Times (NYT) on October 5, 2016, that was investigated by two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years,” they wrote. “Both declined to prosecute.”

Comey’s lawyers also argue the national security statute would have required prosecutors to bring the charges by an indictment, rather than criminal information, for the statute of limitations to hold.

“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear, courts may not read words or phrases into statutes,” they wrote.

They are asking the case to be dismissed as “time barred.”

“For the third time in a little more than one year, the Department of Justice has attempted to charge Mr. Comey with a federal crime,” Patrick J. Fitzgerald, an attorney for Comey said in a statement on Monday. “Mr. Comey steadfastly maintains his innocence.”

Fitzgerald also mentioned that prosecutors previously declined to bring these charges against Comey.

“Now, ten years after the article was published, the Government filed an ‘Information’ against Mr. Comey that was not approved by a judge nor issued by a grand jury,” Fitzgerald added. “It purports to charge Mr. Comey with crimes that he did not commit.”

The government responded Comey’s motion to dismiss the case in a filing, saying Comey is “mistaken” that the government was within its authority to bring these charges by criminal information

The new charges mark the third time Comey has faced federal criminal prosecution under the Trump administration, following a dismissed 2025 case in Virginia and an April indictment accusing him of threatening the president in North Carolina.

The North Carolina case remains active, but has been delayed until at least early next year. Comey faces two felony counts for allegedly threatening the president’s life in a photo posted on social media.

In May 2025, Comey posted the photo, which featured the numbers “86 47’’ spelled out in seashells on a beach in North Carolina. The term “86” is widely used among restaurant workers to mean getting rid of or refusing something, such as an unwanted customer or unavailable menu item. Trump is currently the 47th president of the United States.

Comey has yet to enter a plea on those charges and will not do so until at least January.

Comey was first charged with lying to Congress last year in Virginia. That case was swiftly dismissed after a federal judge found Lindsey Halligan — the sole prosecutor to sign that indictment — had been unlawfully appointed. The government appealed that dismissal and that appeal remains pending.

The development also comes the same day a federal judge ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, from her position as a federal prosecutor in New York, ordering her retroactive reinstatement and back pay.

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