Updated ,first published
Washington: The US Department of Justice has charged former FBI director James Comey with leaking national defence information, marking the third time the political enemy of President Donald Trump has been charged in the past 13 months.
The charges, unsealed on Monday (US time), accuse Comey with directing an individual, “through one and more co-conspirators”, to disclose national defence information to a reporter at a national news publication in 2016, while he was FBI director.
Comey already faces charges over an Instagram photograph he posted showing seashells on a beach arranged to spell “86 47”. This was alleged to be a death threat against Trump because “86” in restaurant parlance means to get rid of something. It has also sometimes been appropriated as a mob term.
Last year, Comey was indicted on charges of making false statements to a 2020 Senate hearing and obstructing a congressional investigation. But that case was thrown out by a judge who found that the prosecutor bringing the case, Trump’s former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed.
On Monday, Comey reacted to the latest charges with a video he posted on Instagram. “Well, they’re back – again,” he said.
“It would almost be funny if it weren’t such 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.
“The next couple of years are going to be hard for all of us. It’s really important that we stand straight, and keep the faith in America.”
Court documents show the charges were filed exactly 10 years after the alleged leak took place – which appears to be the last possible day before the statute of limitations on the offence would expire.
The document was signed by Trent McCotter, the acting US deputy attorney general, who was appointed to the role by attorney-general Todd Blanche in April. Blanche is another of Trump’s former lawyers.
The Justice Department said it filed a waiverless criminal information to stop the clock on the statute of limitations. That means the defendant, Comey, has not waived their right to be charged by a grand jury. “This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further,” the department said.
Comey’s lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald said the accusation related to New York Times article from October 2016 – the circumstances of which have been investigated previously, by two different prosecution teams, and did not result in charges.
“Now, 10 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 said. “It purports to charge Mr Comey with crimes that he did not commit.”
The charges were unsealed on the same day that a judge in New York ruled that Trump’s Justice Department had unlawfully fired Comey’s eldest daughter, Maurene Comey, in July 2025.
The younger Comey was a prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office who brought criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
She successfully argued that she was sacked because of who her father was, in violation of federal laws prohibiting firing civil servants for political reasons and guaranteeing federal employees due process in employment disputes.
Trump’s hatred of Comey stems from the former FBI director authorising an investigation into alleged links between the president’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, which Trump routinely refers to as the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax”.
With Reuters
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.