By Hannah Rabinowitz, Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) – The Justice Department has filed criminal charges against James Comey regarding an allegation from over ten years ago that he instructed his team to leak classified information to a reporter. This marks the third time prosecutors have brought criminal claims against the former FBI director.
The charges relate to an alleged leak of a sensitive national security document that took place when Comey was serving as FBI director in October 2016. According to court documents released on Monday, his legal team stated that these allegations were previously investigated without any resulting charges.
“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,” Comey mentioned in a video shared on social media.
However, the Justice Department indicates that the document detailing these two charges-referred to as an information-is not enforceable and they have not yet submitted their formal charges against Comey. Instead, this action seems aimed at extending the 10-year limit for filing charges under the Espionage Act against him, which had expired earlier this month, according to a department official’s statement.
“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,” said the DOJ official. “This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further.”
A judge will ultimately determine whether the Justice Department’s decision to prosecute Comey after the statute of limitations has lapsed is valid. Earlier this month, Comey filed for dismissal of the case, arguing that there should be an indictment within 10 years and that what DOJ filed does not meet that requirement.
The case was made public on Monday; however, documents provide limited information regarding what exactly prosecutors are alleging.
When asked about these new charges during his return trip to Washington D. C. from a rally in Mississippi, President Donald Trump stated he was unaware of them.
“I don’t know too much about it. I just heard about it,” Trump said according to a pool report. “I think he’s a dirty cop, James Comey, but I know nothing about it.”
The issues surrounding alleged leaks to The New York Times emerged early in Trump’s first term. After Trump dismissed him as FBI director, Comey shared with his staff at least one memo outlining his conversations with Trump. This information later reached a reporter at The New York Times.
The scrutiny into Comey’s actions has been part of various investigations including those led by the Justice Department’s inspector general and Special Counsel John Durham. Durham was tasked with looking into how federal authorities began their investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Durham charged three individuals related to this inquiry and while he criticized some choices made by Comey and other senior officials, he did not find sufficient evidence for criminal prosecutions against them.
Comey is also facing another separate charge in North Carolina where he allegedly threatened Trump by posting last spring on social media a picture of seashells arranged in sand spelling out “8647.” A previous case concerning Comey’s Congressional testimony related to media leaks was dismissed by a judge last year.
“This is a bizarre and likely improper use of a criminal ‘information’ ’to end-run the statute of limitations,” Elie Honig, who served as a federal prosecutor and now works as CNN’s senior legal analyst remarked on Monday. “Typically an information must be agreed upon by a defendant-and Comey did not consent here. It therefore likely cannot extend the statute of limitations which would have expired on October 5, 2026.”
This story was updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Aleena Fayaz contributed to this report.
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