The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a criminal information against former FBI Director James Comey on Oct. 5, 2026, seeking to toll a 10-year deadline that his lawyers say the filing cannot satisfy.
Filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and unsealed Oct. 26, the document has two counts. The filing has two counts: one alleging transmission of national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it and another alleging conspiracy to transmit it. The allegations are not findings of guilt. EconoTimes previously outlined the accusations.
The filing came on the 10th anniversary of the conduct prosecutors allege. The DOJ said it submitted the information to toll the limitations period, describing the procedure as a “widely recognized practice in federal court.” Comey’s lawyers argue the law requires an indictment within 10 years and that an information cannot extend that period. The court has not resolved the dispute.
Mediaite reported that Comey’s lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald identified the alleged disclosure as connected to a New York Times article published Oct. 5, 2016, about Yahoo email scanning. The charging document does not name the article or publication. Reuters had reported on Yahoo’s scanning the previous day.
In a video statement, Comey said, “I’m still innocent,” and said he believed in an independent federal judiciary.
A separate 2025 indictment accused Comey of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. It was dismissed without prejudice on Nov. 24, 2025, after a judge found the prosecutor who obtained it had not been lawfully appointed.
CBS News reported Oct. 26 that no grand jury indictment had been returned in the current case and the judge had not ruled on the limitations issue.
