The Justice Department filed new federal charges against former FBI Director James Comey on Monday, the third time the Trump administration has tried to prosecute its highest-profile critic inside law enforcement since the president returned to office.

Unlike Comey's two earlier cases, this one did not come from a grand jury indictment. Prosecutors in Washington, D.C. instead used a rarer tool called a criminal information — a charging document filed directly by prosecutors — in what defense lawyers say is an attempt to get around the statute of limitations on a decade-old allegation.

Comey is accused of knowingly communicating national defense information to someone not entitled to receive it, and of conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to do the same. According to the filing, he allegedly directed an unidentified individual to disclose national defense information to a reporter at a major news outlet, with the conduct dating to October 5, 2016 — the height of the FBI's Russia investigation into the Trump campaign.

A Decade-Old Allegation, Revived

The timing is notable: federal law generally gives prosecutors five years to bring charges, meaning the government is leaning on a legal theory that the clock didn't start running until later, or that a conspiracy charge extends the window. Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, filed a motion 10 days ago seeking to dismiss an earlier related case as time-barred, and is expected to make the same argument here.

This marks the third separate federal case brought against the 65-year-old since 2025. The first, a September 2025 indictment over his congressional testimony, was thrown out by a judge who ruled the interim U.S. attorney who brought it, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed. The second, filed in April 2026 in North Carolina, accused him of threatening the president in a since-deleted Instagram post showing seashells arranged to spell "86 47" — a post Comey said was about opposing violence, not inciting it.

"MR. COMEY STEADFASTLY MAINTAINS HIS INNOCENCE."

That line, repeated by his legal team after each new filing, is likely to anchor his response again. The Justice Department and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment beyond the filing itself, according to CNBC's reporting on the new case.

Why It Matters

Comey has become a central figure in President Trump's long-running effort to hold accountable the officials he blames for the Russia investigation that shadowed his first term. Critics, including Senate Democrats, have accused the administration of weaponizing the Justice Department against a private citizen with no current government role. Supporters of the prosecution argue Comey's conduct as FBI director in 2016 and 2017 warranted scrutiny all along.

Legal analysts tracking the case note that twice-dismissed charges against the same defendant, on different theories, is unusual even by the standards of politically charged Washington prosecutions. UPI's account of Monday's filing notes prosecutors appear to be building a narrower, more defensible case after the first two stumbled on procedural grounds rather than the underlying facts.

What's Next

Comey is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Washington in the coming weeks. His lawyers have signaled they will move quickly to challenge both the statute-of-limitations issue and the use of a criminal information rather than a grand jury indictment — a procedural point that, if it fails, could set precedent for how the department pursues other long-delayed national security cases.