The Justice Department has charged former FBI director James Comey for a third time in President Donald Trump’s second term, this time over an alleged leak of national defense information to The New York Times in 2016. Prosecutors unsealed a two-count criminal filing in federal court in Washington on Monday, accusing Comey of transmitting national defense information and conspiring to transmit it.
According to the filing, Comey directed staff to speak to Times reporter Charlie Savage about an article published on 5 October 2016 concerning Yahoo’s reported assistance with US government email surveillance. Prosecutors said the disclosure corrected information in an earlier Reuters report and transferred classified information in the process. The filing, dated 5 October, was made as a criminal information, which lets prosecutors bring charges without first seeking an indictment, and served to extend the 10-year statute of limitations.
Comey rejected the charges in a video posted on Monday, calling the case an appalling abuse of the Justice Department and saying he remains innocent and unafraid. His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said two separate prosecutor teams investigated the same disclosure during Trump’s first term and both times decided against bringing charges.
The case adds to Comey’s other legal fights. A charge accusing him of making false statements to Congress was dismissed, while a separate charge tied to a social media post prosecutors said threatened the president remains pending. Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017, while Comey was overseeing the early investigation into alleged ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
