A federal court in Washington has unsealed a criminal information accusing former FBI Director James Comey of transmitting national-defence information and conspiring to do so. The filing opens a new prosecution effort while leaving an immediate procedural question over whether the government can proceed without a grand-jury indictment.
The two-count information was filed under seal on October 5 and made public by order of US District Judge Trevor McFadden on October 26. Prosecutors allege that, on or about October 5, 2016, Comey communicated information relating to national defence to a person not entitled to receive it. They further allege that he acted through one or more co-conspirators to direct a disclosure to a reporter. Those are accusations, not findings, and Comey is presumed innocent.
The charging instrument is an information rather than an indictment. Comey’s lawyers had already moved to dismiss while the matter remained sealed, arguing that the document could not preserve charges that require an indictment and that the limitations period had expired. The government has described the filing as a step intended to preserve the case while prosecutors seek an indictment.
The unsealing order records that prosecutors were not seeking Comey’s arrest or appearance at that stage and that he had offered to surrender voluntarily. The docket also shows a corrected copy of the information and competing submissions on the limitations issue. McFadden has not ruled on the motion to dismiss, and no trial date has been set.
The case is separate from earlier charges accusing Comey of making false statements to Congress, which were dismissed over the appointment of the prosecutor, and from another pending prosecution concerning a social-media post. The Justice Department has appealed the dismissal of the false-statements case.
The newly public filing therefore marks the start of another contested proceeding, not a determination that any classified information was unlawfully disclosed. Its first significant test is likely to be whether the prosecution was validly commenced in time.
View the public court docket and filings
