Comey's attorneys return to court to fight DOJ's efforts to charge him for 3rd time

Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey are set to appear in court in Washington, D.C., Friday in their emergency push to have a federal judge dismiss the criminal allegations lodged against him by the Justice Department that accuse him of allegedly mishandling classified information more than a decade ago.Comey's attorneys are requesting D.C. District Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of President Trump, toss out the case on the grounds that the government failed to secure an indictment from a grand jury before a 10-year statute of limitations lapsed regarding Comey's alleged conduct.It's the third known effort by federal prosecutors to attempt to bring charges against Comey in the span of 13 months, after President Donald Trump issued a public demand for the Justice Department to act "now" to bring prosecutions against Comey and other perceived political foes.The latest allegations were revealed Monday after McFadden ordered details of the behind-the-scenes legal fight to be unsealed at the request of Comey's legal team.According to unsealed court records, prosecutors allege that Comey broke the law by directing FBI staff to leak information to a New York Times reporter for an article published on Oct. 5, 2016, titled "Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter.""The United States' investigation has uncovered evidence that former FBI Director, James B. Comey, sought to correct misinformation which had appeared in the press by way of Reuters the day before," prosecutors wrote in their response to Comey's motion to dismiss the case earlier this month. "Mr. Comey directed staff to speak to [the New York Times reporter] about specific accuracy concerns related to the Reuters article, and thereby illegally transferred classified information."The article in question centered on whether the Department of Justice sought a court order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to force Yahoo to search for communications between members of a foreign terrorist organization.Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters after a day of testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 7, 2018.J. Scott Applewhite/APAccording to court filings, Comey sought to correct claims in a Reuters story published the previous day that Yahoo "secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials."Popular ReadsProsecutors with the Department of Justice filed the allegations against Comey via a "criminal information," which does not require the approval of a grand jury. It was filed under seal on Oct. 5.Comey was indicted in North Carolina on April 28 over a controversial Instagram post from last year that prosecutors say was a threat against the president. In the post, Comey shared a picture showing the numbers "86 47" -- interpreted to mean "get rid of" Trump -- written in seashells on the beach, with the caption, "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."Comey removed the post soon after making it, saying, "I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." His next court appearance in that case is scheduled for January.The former FBI director was previously indicted in September 2025 on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.Comey pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and the case was ultimately dismissed on the grounds that the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who brought the case was improperly appointed.