Comey Lawyers Move to Dismiss Third DOJ Criminal Case

Former FBI Director James Comey will appear in court Friday to contest a third federal criminal case filed by the Trump administration. His legal team is seeking to dismiss the new charges, which allege he directed FBI staff to leak classified information to a reporter in October 2016. This filing marks the latest legal confrontation in a series of prosecutions initiated against Comey over the past 13 months.

The current case stems from a New York Times story detailing how Yahoo complied with a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order. That order authorized the systematic scanning of user emails. The government claims Comey instructed agents to speak with a Times reporter regarding this specific report. Unlike the previous two cases, this charge was brought via a criminal information filed directly by the government without initial judicial approval.

Comey's attorneys argue the government failed to secure a grand jury indictment before the statute of limitations expired. They contend the procedural mechanism used to file the case undermines the government's own complaint. Former federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff, part of the defense team, stated that the government should have either obtained a judge's signature on a complaint or presented the charges to a grand jury. She noted, "They brought the case in such a way that undermines their complaint in the first place."

In a video statement released Monday, Comey addressed the new filing. He called it "an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice" and maintained his innocence. "I’m still not afraid of these people," he said, adding that he believes in the independent federal judiciary.

This is the third case filed against Comey since September 2025. The first, known as the "seashells case," arose in the Eastern District of North Carolina. A grand jury indicted him based on an Instagram photo he posted of seashells arranged to show the numbers 86 and 47. Republicans and Trump allies interpreted the numbers as a call for the president's assassination. Comey removed the post after explaining that he did not realize the combination implied violence. The number 47 refers to Trump's term as the 47th president, while 86 can mean to discard or eliminate.

The second case, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, was dismissed after Lindsey Halligan was found to have been acting as a federal prosecutor unlawfully. Halligan had convinced a grand jury to return that indictment. She departed the role in January.

The next step in the current litigation is scheduled for Friday. Comey's team will present their motion to dismiss the third case to the judge, arguing that the procedural defects in the filing warrant a complete dismissal of the charges.