Comey lawyers seek dismissal of third federal case

Attorneys for former FBI Director James B. Comey appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday to challenge the latest attempt to criminally charge their client. The legal team is asking Judge Trevor McFadden to dismiss the case because the government failed to secure a grand jury indictment before the 10-year statute of limitations expired on the alleged conduct.

This marks the third known effort by federal prosecutors to bring charges against Comey in 13 months. The timeline follows a public demand from President Donald Trump for the Justice Department to act now against perceived political foes.

The specific allegations in the current case surfaced on Monday after Judge McFadden unsealed court records at the request of Comey's legal team. Prosecutors accuse Comey of illegally transferring classified information by directing FBI staff to speak with a New York Times reporter.

According to the unsealed filings, the interaction was intended to correct misinformation that had appeared in the press. Prosecutors stated that Comey sought to fix errors in a Reuters article published on October 4, 2016. The Reuters piece claimed that Yahoo had secretly built custom software to search customer emails for information provided by U.S. intelligence officials.

The New York Times followed up on October 5, 2016, with an article titled Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter. The story examined whether the Department of Justice sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to force Yahoo to search communications linked to a foreign terrorist organization.

Justice Department prosecutors filed the allegations using a criminal information rather than an indictment. This procedural choice allows the government to proceed without the approval of a grand jury. The document was filed under seal on October 5 of this year.

Comey faces this new charge alongside two other cases. He was indicted in North Carolina on April 28 regarding an Instagram post from last year. In that post, he shared a photo of the numbers 86 47 written in seashells on a beach, captioned Cool shell formation on my beach walk. Prosecutors argue the numbers constitute a threat against the president.

Comey removed the post shortly after publishing it. He stated that he did not realize some people associate those numbers with violence and that he opposes all forms of violence. His next court appearance in the North Carolina case is scheduled for January.

The former director was previously indicted in September 2025 on charges of making a false statement and obstruction of justice. Those charges related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, and the case was subsequently dismissed because the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who brought the charges was found to be improperly appointed.