DOJ Files Criminal Information Against James Comey in Third Charging Effort

The Justice Department has taken a third step to charge former FBI Director James Comey, this time using a legal tool designed to keep a case alive rather than to bring immediate charges. Court records show prosecutors filed a criminal information in early October, targeting Comey for two counts of violating the Espionage Act. The filing allows the government to pause the ten-year statute of limitations, which was set to expire this month.

The legal maneuver is highly unusual. A criminal information typically bypasses a grand jury and is used when a defendant agrees to waive that right and plead guilty. Former federal prosecutor Greg Rosen, who helped lead Jan. 6 cases, said he had never seen such a document used this way in Washington, D.C., especially in a third attempt to charge the same man. Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, described the move as a way to do an end-run around the statute of limitations for a case that should have died nine years ago.

The charges stem from a 2016 allegation that Comey shared national defense information with an unnamed individual for publication in The New York Times. The article, published on Oct. 5, 2016, reported that Yahoo aided U.S. email surveillance. Prosecutors claim Comey directed staff to correct misinformation that had appeared in Reuters the day before. Comey’s attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, stated that investigators looked into the matter twice during the first Trump administration and determined no charges should be brought.

The filing was sealed in early October and unsealed on Monday by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden at Comey’s request. For weeks, Comey’s lawyers and federal prosecutors fought in secret over whether the government’s effort should be dismissed. Comey’s team argued the government filed a faulty information to toll the statute of limitations and that they had reason to believe federal officers were surveilling his whereabouts. In an emergency hearing, the government agreed to hold off on seeking a formal indictment for 30 days.

The criminal information was signed by acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, along with special assistant U.S. attorneys not originally from the D.C. office. Judge McFadden, a Trump appointee, said the charges are of significant public interest and noted that Comey has offered to self-surrender. The judge did not rule on the merits of the case.

This is the third legal action against Comey in this dispute. In September 2025, prosecutors obtained an indictment alleging he lied to Congress about authorizing an FBI employee to serve as an anonymous source. That indictment was later dismissed by a judge who found the interim U.S. attorney who signed it was improperly appointed. In April of this year, Comey was indicted in North Carolina on the allegation that he threatened President Trump by posting a photo of seashells arranged to form the numbers 86 47. That case remains pending.

Comey said in a video statement that the department is back again and that he remains innocent and unafraid of the people prosecuting him. He called the process an appalling abuse of the Justice Department. The Justice Department said in a statement that filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court approved by multiple circuit courts.