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James Comey Charged with Leaking National Defense Information
· Confirmed
In Short: Former FBI Director James Comey was charged with leaking national defense information, marking the third time the Department of Justice has pursued him since President Trump's second term.
The charges stem from an October 5, 2016, article in The New York Times titled 'Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter,' according to NBC News and the New York Post.
Comey is accused of directing a person identified as 'Individual #1' to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication, as alleged by federal prosecutors.
The document does not specify the information, the reporter, the publication, or the intermediaries involved, according to BNO News.
Comey denied wrongdoing and called the prosecution an 'appalling abuse' of the Justice Department, as quoted by BNO News and Fox News.
He stated, 'Nothing’s changed with me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary,' as reported by BNO News and the New York Post.
Federal prosecutors allege that Comey had lawful access to the information and reason to believe it could harm the United States and benefit a foreign nation, as per BNO News.
The Justice Department filed a criminal information against Comey, a widely recognized practice in federal court, according to Fox News.
Comey's defense attorneys argue that the case is 'time barred' because the government had 10 years to bring the case by obtaining a grand jury indictment, as reported by NBC News.
The charges that were filed are a criminal information, not a grand jury indictment, and should therefore be dismissed, according to Comey's lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald, as quoted by The Age (Australia).
The case is playing out under seal since October 5, and Comey's defense attorneys sought to have the charges dismissed last week, as per Justthenews.
Comey was also charged last year with obstruction of justice and making a false statement to Congress in 2020, though those charges were dismissed.
The new charges follow President Donald Trump’s public demand that then-Attorney General Pam Bondi take action against Comey and other adversaries, as reported by BNO News.
What this adds
The case is playing out under seal since October 5, and Comey's defense attorneys sought to have the charges dismissed last week.
The charges against Comey mark the third time the Department of Justice has gone after the ex-lawman and Trump administration critic since the start of President Trump’s second term.
The judge granted Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of his firing through December 20.
Background
The Justice Department is seeking to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey over alleged disclosure of national defense information.
What's confirmed
- He denied wrongdoing and called the prosecution an “appalling abuse” of the Justice Department.
- “Nothing’s changed with me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary,” he said.
- The second count alleges that, through one or more co-conspirators, he directed a person identified only as “Individual #1” to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.
- "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. This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further."
- The new charges stem from an Oct. 5, 2016, article in The New York Times with the headline “Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter” by reporter Charlie Savage.
- Comey’s lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald said the accusation related to an article that appeared in The New York Times in October 2016 – the circumstances of which have been investigated previously, by two different prosecution teams, and did not result in charges.
- Washington: The US Department of Justice has charged former FBI director James Comey with leaking national defence information, marking the third time the political enemy of President Donald Trump has been charged in the past 13 months.
- Last year, Comey was indicted on charges of making false statements to a 2020 Senate hearing and obstructing a congressional investigation.
What's still developing
- The first count alleges that he knowingly transmitted national defense information to someone who was not authorized to receive it on October 5, 2016.
- A previous case accusing him of lying to Congress was dismissed, while a separate case stemming from his "86 47" seashell social media post remains pending.
- McFadden said that while it is not unusual to “initially seal a charging instrument,” those are usually sealed only to aid the apprehension of a defendant.
- The president removed James Comey from his post as FBI director in May 2017 while the agency investigated potential links between Russia and the Republican's victorious 2016 campaign.
- "the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike."
- “Faced with this conspiracy during his term, President Trump concluded that any private civil lawsuit would consume substantial time and energy and that any civil suit should therefore be postponed until after his term,” the lawsuit reads.
- In 2022, the Federal Election Commission fined Clinton’s campaign team and the Democratic National Committee after complaints that it financed research into the Steele dossier, while misrepresenting the funding as legal services to obscure the spending.
- Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal judge in Florida in 2022 tossed Trump’s lawsuit on the Russia “hoax,” ordering the president’s team to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions.