Justice department charges ex-FBI director James Comey for third time

Comey, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, accused of leaking information related to US national defense

The justice department charged former FBI director James Comey on Monday with two counts of leaking information related to national defense, the third time the Trump administration has filed criminal charges against one of Donald Trump’s most despised foes.

The charges, filed in federal court in Washington DC, provide few details about what Comey is alleged to have leaked. The government alleges that the former FBI director leaked the information in 2016 and conspired with an unnamed person to give the information to a national news outlet.

Patrick Fitzgerald, Comey’s attorney, said the charges were related to a 5 October 2016 New York Times article that had already been investigated by prosecutors. The case was filed through a criminal maneuver known as an “information” – meaning it was not approved by a grand jury. While prosecutors will eventually have to have the charges approved by a grand jury, filing the charges through an information appears to have been an effort to quickly get the criminal charges in against Comey before the 10-year statute of limitations expires.

“Ten years after the article was published, the government filed an ‘information’ against Mr Comey that was not approved by a judge nor issued by a grand jury. It purports to charge Mr Comey with crimes he did not commit,” Fitzgerald said in a statement.

In a court filing unsealed on Monday, Comey’s lawyers argued the indictment should be dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired and it had been twice investigated and determined no charges should be filed. They also argued that the law required an indictment, not an information, within the 10-year statute of limitations.

Trump fired Comey in 2017 as he worked on an investigation into whether Trump allies colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The former FBI director has since become an outspoken critic of the president.

Last year, the justice department charged Comey with lying to Congress, but the charges were thrown out after a judge found the prosecutor handling the case, a White House ally installed to bring the case, was unlawfully appointed.

Earlier this year, the justice department filed charges against Comey in federal court in North Carolina for posting a picture of a formation of seashells spelling out “8647” – which for some people is a shorthand way of saying get rid of Trump. Legal experts have said that case is thin.

“Well, they’re back again. It would almost be funny if wasn’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice. One that we cannot become numb to,” Comey said in a video posted online.