Justice Department Moves to Prosecute James Comey Over Decade-Old Leak; Defense Says Statute of Limitations Has Expired

Washington: The Trump administration is seeking to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey over what it describes as a leak of classified information nearly ten years ago. Comey’s lawyers immediately rejected the effort as legally invalid and filed too late under federal law.

The allegations came to light on Monday in newly unsealed court documents. They reveal a closed-door legal battle that marks a clear escalation in the administration’s pursuit of Comey, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump. This is the third criminal case against Comey since Trump returned to the White House last year. It is also one of several politically sensitive investigative steps the Justice Department has taken in the days before next week’s midterm elections.

Comey responded in a video statement on Monday. “Well, they’re back — again,” he said, calling the case an “appalling abuse of the Department of Justice — one that we cannot become numb to.” He added, “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.”

Dispute Over the Statute of Limitations

The Justice Department said it had filed a “criminal information,” a charging document, to extend the statute of limitations in the case. A department spokesperson said this is a widely recognized practice in federal court that several federal appeals courts have approved. The spokesperson described the matter as an ongoing criminal investigation and declined to comment further.

Unlike an indictment, a criminal information does not need a judge’s approval or a grand jury’s finding of probable cause. Comey’s legal team says the charges are invalid because prosecutors did not obtain a grand jury indictment within the ten-year limit the law requires. The information was filed under seal on October 5, ten years after the events in question. Comey’s lawyers argue that the law explicitly calls for an indictment within that period and that an information does not meet the requirement. They have asked a judge to dismiss the case, and that motion is still pending.

“For the third time in little more than one year, the Department of Justice has attempted to charge Mr. Comey with a federal crime. Mr. Comey steadfastly maintains his innocence,” said his attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.

Speaking to reporters late Monday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after a rally in Mississippi, President Trump said he knew little about the case and had only just heard about it. He nonetheless called Comey “a dirty cop.”

Allegation Investigated Twice Before

The case concerns an October 2016 New York Times report about a secret court order requiring Yahoo to scan users’ emails for messages possibly linked to a foreign terrorist organization. The report cited two anonymous government officials discussing the order, which was issued by a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and which Yahoo was barred from disclosing publicly.

Federal authorities, including prosecutor John Durham, began investigating the disclosure in early 2017. According to a recent court filing by Comey’s attorneys, Durham wrote a classified memo in December 2018 recommending that no one be charged. In January 2019, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia opened a second investigation into the same matter under the code name “Tropical Vortex.” That inquiry was closed in February 2020, also without charges.

Fitzgerald said that both times the government concluded no one should be charged. He added that ten years after the article appeared, the government had filed a document against Comey that neither a judge approved nor a grand jury issued, accusing him of crimes he did not commit.

In the unsealed filing, prosecutors allege that Comey wanted to correct inaccurate information published by Reuters the day before the Times story appeared. They say he directed his staff to speak with a Times journalist about accuracy concerns, and in doing so illegally passed on classified information.

A Long and Bitter Rivalry

The first criminal case against Comey, filed in federal court in Virginia, accused him of lying to Congress in 2020. A judge dismissed it after finding that the prosecutor who brought the charges had been unlawfully appointed. A separate pending indictment accuses him of threatening President Trump through an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read “86 47.” Comey has also moved to dismiss that case.

The administration’s actions have also reached Comey’s family. His daughter, Maurene Comey, was fired last year from her job as a federal prosecutor in New York. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that her dismissal was illegal.

Comey was serving as FBI Director when Trump took office in 2017. He had been appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and earlier had been a senior Justice Department official in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush. The relationship with Trump was strained from the start. At a private dinner, Trump asked Comey to pledge personal loyalty. Comey declined, and he was troubled enough by the request to record it in a memorandum at the time.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 while the FBI was investigating possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller later took over that inquiry. He found that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election and that the Trump campaign welcomed the help, but there was not enough evidence to prove criminal coordination.

The two men have been bitterly opposed ever since. In his 2018 memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey compared Trump to a mafia boss and described him as “untethered to truth.” Trump has repeatedly said Comey should face charges of “treason,” which Comey has dismissed as “dumb lies.” Trump has also called him an “untruthful slime ball.”

The new case is one of several high-profile Justice Department actions in recent weeks. Last Friday, the department filed a criminal complaint charging two former FBI officials with lying to Congress about their roles in investigations involving Hunter Biden. Federal agents also recently searched the Washington home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.