Former FBI Director James Comey is facing a third criminal case brought by the Justice Department, this time over allegations that he improperly disclosed a sensitive national security document while leading the bureau in October 2016.
Court records unsealed Monday reveal that prosecutors filed charges against Comey in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on October 5, exactly 10 years after the alleged disclosure.
The publicly available documents provide few details about the document or the circumstances surrounding its alleged transmission.
The Justice Department has not yet secured a grand jury indictment and says the October 5 filing was intended to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring while prosecutors continue pursuing the case.
In a statement, the department defended its use of a criminal information, a charging document filed by prosecutors without a grand jury indictment.
“The Department filed a waiverless criminal information to toll the statute of limitations as it relates to allegations concerning former FBI Director Comey," the Justice Department said, as quoted by CNN.
“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."
Comey's attorneys have challenged the filing in sealed proceedings conducted earlier this month, arguing that prosecutors were required to obtain an indictment before the 10-year deadline expired, according to CNN.
They contend that the Justice Department cannot satisfy that requirement merely by filing a criminal information.
“An indictment fundamentally differs from an information," his lawyers argued in court documents.
Comey also publicly criticized the latest proceedings, accusing the Justice Department of abusing its authority.
“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," he said in a video.
The legal dispute became public Monday when the court unsealed the case.
The new allegations add to two other criminal proceedings involving Comey.
In North Carolina, the former FBI director faces a separate charge stemming from a social media post that critics interpreted as a threat against President Donald Trump.
The controversy began in May 2025, when Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47."
The image drew criticism because the number 86 is sometimes used as slang for removing or getting rid of something, while Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
Some interpreted the combination as a veiled reference to harming or eliminating Trump.
Comey initially captioned the photograph: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk."
He deleted the post later that day and subsequently explained that he believed the arrangement conveyed “a political message" but “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence."
Comey was also indicted in September 2025 on allegations that he lied to Congress about disclosures of information to the media.
That prosecution was dismissed late last year after a federal judge ruled that the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who had brought the case, had been appointed improperly without Senate approval.