Former FBI Director Jim Comey is being targeted with his third round of charges of a federal crime by Trump’s Department of Justice.
The charges were revealed hours after a federal judge in New York ruled that the firing of Maurene Comey was unlawful, and was granted reinstatement and back pay as an assistant US Attorney for the SDNY.
On Monday, Jim Comey requested the unsealing of charging documents in Washington, DC, and is seeking the dismissal of the case that accuses him of the “alleged disclosure of classified information” to The New York Times on Oct. 5, 2016, saying the Trump Administration did not file an indictment within the 10-year statute of limitations. On Oct. 5, prosecutors filed the charges in a criminal information under seal in Federal District Court in Washington, which does not require approval from a grand jury or a judicial finding of probable cause, but have not obtained an indictment.
The DOJ alleges that Comey directed FBI staff to speak with the New York Times “about specific accuracy concerns” related to “misinformation which had appeared” in a Reuters report about Yahoo’s cooperation with U.S. surveillance.
Comey’s lawyers say he “was investigated by two separate U.S. Attorneys over the past ten years. Both declined to prosecute.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled on Monday that Maurene Comey had been unlawfully fired, and ordered her to be retroactively reinstated with backpay.
Judge Jesse Furman rejected the DOJ’s arguments that the attorney general (then Pam Bondi) had authority to dismiss Comey without cause. The case is in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Ms. Comey’s lawsuit against the DOJ argued that her termination violated federal law and the Constitution and stemmed from Trump’s hatred of her father Jim.
Ms. Comey had been involved with prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs, and was fired on July 16, 2025. The backpay would apply through December 20, 2025, with the judge’s inference that Ms. Comey accepted another job.