Former FBI Director James Comey was hit with his third set of federal charges Monday — this time for allegedly leaking national defense information to the New York Times in October 2016, proving that the man who once weaponized the nation's top law enforcement agency against Americans isn't above the law after all.
The charges cut to the heart of the double standard that has corroded public trust in the justice system: the same FBI that targeted ordinary Americans, surveilled political campaigns, and prosecuted leakers with abandon was run by a man who allegedly did the exact same thing — and walked free for a decade.
According to court filings unsealed Monday at Comey's own request, he faces two counts: knowingly communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, and conspiring with others to do so. The New York Post reported that the charges stem from an October 5, 2016, Times article by Charlie Savage about Yahoo adapting its spam filter to aid U.S. email surveillance. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote that Comey "directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy concerns related to" a prior Reuters article, "and thereby illegally transferred classified information."
Comey's attorney Patrick Fitzgerald confirmed the charges relate to that 2016 Times story, which The Guardian noted had "already been investigated by prosecutors." In fact, Comey's lawyers told the court that two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years declined to prosecute — a detail CNBC reported but most outlets treated as an afterthought. Two prosecutors looked at this. Both passed. Now, days before the 10-year statute of limitations expires, the DOJ is suddenly interested.
The DOJ filed the charges through a "criminal information" rather than a grand jury indictment — a procedural maneuver that allowed prosecutors to toll the statute of limitations. A DOJ spokesperson told the New York Post the practice is "widely recognized in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals." Comey's lawyers disagree, arguing in court filings that the law required a grand jury indictment within the 10-year window and calling the sealed information "faulty."
Comey responded in a Substack video: "Well, they're back — again. 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."
This is Comey's third prosecution since Trump returned to office. A previous indictment for lying to Congress was dismissed after a judge ruled the prosecutor — a White House ally — was unlawfully appointed. A pending North Carolina case charges him over an Instagram post of seashells arranged as "86 47." Attorney General Todd Blanche insists that case rests on more than the post alone.
The new charges surfaced the same day a federal judge ruled Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, was illegally fired from her position as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and ordered her reinstatement with back pay.
The question that matters: will the man who ran the FBI finally face a jury of his peers, or will the same system that shielded him for a decade find another way to let one of its own walk?
