Federal judge had ruled the Justice Department unlawfully fired Maurene Comey
President Donald Trump said late Monday that he had just heard about the federal charges against former FBI Director James Comey. Asked by reporters about the charges, Trump said, “I don’t know too much about it. I just heard about it.” He then said: “I think he’s a dirty cop, James Comey, but I know nothing about it.”
The Justice Department unsealed the charges Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The department charged Comey for a third time with federal crimes, saying he allegedly leaked a national security document. Prosecutors filed the charging document on Oct. 5. Federal prosecutors used a criminal information rather than a grand jury indictment in an effort to toll the statute of limitations, and Comey’s defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the charges last week.
The criminal information alleges that Comey knowingly communicated information related to national defense to someone not entitled to receive it and conspired to violate the law. Prosecutors allege the incident occurred in October 2016. In the charging document, prosecutors alleged that Comey, “through one or more co-conspirators,” directed an unnamed person to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.
The case centers on an Oct. 5, 2016 article by The New York Times, according to a statement from Comey’s attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said the matter was investigated by two different prosecutor teams during President Donald Trump’s first administration, and both teams determined against bringing charges against anyone.
Fitzgerald said, “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,” adding that the defense was grateful the matter had been unsealed and made public. He also said, “Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open.”
The charges were unsealed only hours after a federal judge ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, last year from her position as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The ruling was separate from the criminal filing against her father.
In a video statement published to his Substack, Comey rejected the charges. He said, “It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice justice — one that we cannot become numb to.” He said nothing had changed since the last time the Justice Department charged him: “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid of these people and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.”
UPI reported that the Trump administration had targeted Comey, a former Republican, multiple times since Trump abruptly fired him as FBI director in May 2017. As FBI director, Comey oversaw the start in March 2017 of an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The first Justice Department charges against Comey, for alleged false testimony to the U.S. Senate, were dismissed in November 2025. At the time, Comey posted a video on social media saying: “A message has to be sent that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. I don’t care what your politics are, you have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free.”
“I know that Donald Trump will probably come after me again,” he said, “and my attitude is going to be the same. I’m innocent, I am not afraid, and I believe in an independent federal judiciary.”
In April, a federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Comey on charges related to his social media post of a photograph of seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers “86 47.” The Justice Department said the “86” post — often used in restaurants to indicate that a menu item was no longer available — was interpreted by prosecutors as a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Comey’s attorneys have sought dismissal of that case.
Within that chronology, UPI reported that, since returning to office, Trump had employed the power of the executive office to impose what critics characterized as punitive measures against his perceived political opponents. The report listed actions involving law firms linked to his critics, prosecutors who brought cases against him between his first and second terms, and elected officials such as Rep. Jason Crow, Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.