Comey Seeks Dismissal, Saying 10-Year Legal Deadline Had Passed

The Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey over an alleged 2016 leak of national-defense information to a reporter, court papers unsealed on Monday show, in its third case against him since Donald Trump's return to office.

The two counts, transmitting national-defense information and conspiring to transmit it, fall under the Espionage Act and carry a prison term of 10 years on conviction. The charges were filed under seal in federal court in Washington, D.C., on October 5. Prosecutors used a criminal information, which, unlike an indictment, needs no approval from a grand jury, a citizens' panel that weighs the evidence.

Comey has not been indicted and denies wrongdoing. His lawyers have moved to dismiss the case, saying the legal deadline had passed when the information was filed, exactly 10 years after the alleged disclosure. The Justice Department said the charges were timely. A ruling on that motion could decide whether the case survives.

"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," Comey said in a video posted on Substack on Monday.

A longtime Trump critic, Comey was appointed FBI director by then-President Barack Obama and served from 2013. Trump fired Comey in May 2017, amid the bureau's investigation into possible links between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign, and has since repeatedly called for him to be prosecuted.

Comey has called the prosecutions political retribution, and critics see the cases against him as part of a push to target Trump's perceived political foes. Attorney General Todd Blanche has denied that charges against Comey and other Trump adversaries are driven by politics.

What is Comey accused of?

The case concerns an October 5, 2016, New York Times article by reporter Charlie Savage. The story reported that a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had secretly ordered Yahoo to scan emails for messages possibly linked to a foreign terrorist organization.

The three-page charging document gives few details. It alleges that Comey used one or more co-conspirators to direct an unnamed individual to pass national-defense information to a reporter.

In a separate filing, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak wrote that the story contained "first-time disclosures of classified information" resembling talking points in an internal government email sent hours before publication. He wrote that Comey had sought to correct a Reuters report from the previous day.

"The investigation has uncovered evidence that Mr. Comey directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy concerns related to the Reuters article, and thereby illegally transferred classified information," Farahnak wrote.

Comey's lawyers said the disclosure was investigated twice during Trump's first term. John Durham, a former U.S. attorney for Connecticut, recommended in a classified memo in December 2018 that no one be charged, they said. The U.S. attorney's office in Washington closed a second inquiry without charges in February 2020.

What each side argues

The dispute turns on the wording of the statute of limitations, the law setting the 10-year deadline.

In their October 9 motion, Comey's lawyers said the law requires a grand-jury indictment within 10 years and that an information does not count. "This Court should enforce the text that Congress wrote and dismiss the information as time barred," they wrote.

The Justice Department said the defense was misreading the law. It pointed to wording that lets prosecutors meet the deadline if the "indictment is found or the information is instituted," saying either kind of charge counts. It also said Comey's challenge was premature because no indictment had been returned.

A department spokesperson said the filing was meant to pause, or "toll," the deadline while an investigation continues. "Filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals," the spokesperson said.

Appeals courts have approved the practice in some cases, but it is less common in Washington. Criminal informations are usually filed when a defendant plans to give up the right to a grand jury and plead guilty.

Greg Rosen, a former supervisor in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, said a sealed placeholder charge filed on the last possible day was not routine. "It is exactly what it appears to be: vindictive," Rosen said.

Comey's other cases

Comey was first indicted in Virginia in September 2025, accused of lying to Congress. A judge dismissed that case on November 24, 2025, ruling that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who brought the charges, had not been lawfully appointed.

The second case, filed in North Carolina on April 28, 2026, concerns an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read "86 47." Prosecutors allege the post called for violence against Trump, the 47th president, since 86 is slang for getting rid of something. Comey denies wrongdoing and is seeking that case's dismissal.

What happens next?

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, has not ruled on the motion to dismiss. Prosecutors had sought secrecy to protect an ongoing investigation, but McFadden unsealed the case at Comey's request, noting that Comey had offered to surrender himself.

Even if the case survives, Comey cannot be tried on the information alone unless he gives up his right to a grand jury, which would be unusual. Prosecutors would otherwise need an indictment before he could be arrested, arraigned and tried.

After Comey's lawyers said they feared an arrest over a holiday weekend, prosecutors agreed at an emergency hearing to wait 30 days before seeking an indictment, the lawyers later wrote.

It is unclear whether or when prosecutors will seek an indictment. The court papers do not name the individual Comey allegedly directed to pass on the information.