The Department of Justice has filed a new federal criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, charging him with allegedly transmitting national defense information and conspiring to leak classified material to the press in 2016.
According to Western Journal, court documents unsealed in Washington, D.C., on Monday show that Comey is now facing his third federal prosecution. The criminal complaint, which has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, alleges that Comey directed an unnamed individual through one or more co-conspirators to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.
Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until President Donald Trump fired him in 2017 and oversaw the bureaus controversial 2016 probe into alleged Russian election interference, has not yet been indicted by a grand jury on the latest Espionage Act counts. Reports from NBC News and CNBC noted that Comeys legal team quickly moved to challenge the filing and submitted a motion to dismiss the charges.
Shortly after the court records became public, Comey posted a video message on Substack lashing out at the Justice Department. Well, theyre back again. It would almost be funny, if it werent such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to, Comey claimed.
The newly unsealed complaint adds to a growing list of federal legal troubles for the former bureau chief over the past two years. In April 2026, a federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Comey for allegedly threatening the life of President Trump after he posted an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read 86 47, restaurant slang that prosecutors said referred to eliminating the 47th commander-in-chief.
That North Carolina indictment followed an earlier federal grand jury indictment in Virginia in September 2025 charging Comey with obstruction and making a false statement. Prosecutors in that Virginia case accused him of lying to lawmakers during his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020.
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