US charges former FBI director James Comey with leaking national defense information

The charges

Federal prosecutors have charged James B. Comey, the former FBI director, with two counts alleging that he mishandled sensitive national security information in October 2016, when he headed the bureau. The charging document is a criminal information filed in federal district court in Washington, not a grand jury indictment, so it rests solely on the prosecutor's allegations. The three-page filing gives few details about the two counts. Prosecutors allege that Comey directed his staff to speak with a New York Times reporter about U.S. email surveillance, and that the material relayed was sensitive government information that should not have been disclosed. The counts cover participating in the transmission of national defense information and conspiracy to transmit it.

Under seal until Monday

Court records show the case had been under seal since 5 October 2026. A federal judge in Washington sided with Comey's request to unseal the allegations, and the records became public on Monday, 26 October 2026. Comey's lawyers say the case centers on an issue that had already been investigated without leading to charges. They also argue that prosecutors waited too long to bring the allegations. Comey is separately facing an unrelated criminal case in North Carolina. The first of the three criminal cases the Trump administration has brought against him was thrown out by a federal judge.

Timeline

The dates reported so far run from the alleged disclosure in October 2016 to Monday's unsealing. Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017, the year after the alleged disclosure. Each date comes from the court papers or from the reporting on them. The chart below sets out the beats as the articles give them.

Comey's response

Comey denied any wrongdoing in a video posted online on Monday, in which he called the charges an abuse of the Justice Department. He said the case was one that the public should not become numb to.

“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 he would keep fighting the charges in court and offered no further specifics in the video. In the same message he said he still believes in the independent federal judiciary.

“Nothing's changed with me. I'm still innocent.”

Trump and Comey

Trump fired Comey in 2017, and Comey has since become a staunch critic of the president and of the Justice Department's actions during Trump's second term. Axios frames the new case as the third time the administration has charged him. In the video Comey remarked that "they're back again" while declining to give more detail. Comey's lawyers have petitioned a judge to dismiss the case, according to the court papers.