James Comey, former FBI director, was charged on Monday with leaking national security information, and conspiring to leak such information, while directing the FBI in 2016.

Comey was charged with violating the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d), which states that the person has “access to, control over” a document, plan, map, or photograph that “relat[es] to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Further, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d) prohibits “transmitting” information not entitled to receive it or willfully retains the same information and “fails to deliver it on demand to the officer of the United States”. 

In a criminal information sheet filed on October 5, 2026, Count One alleged that Comey had knowingly communicated information relating to national defense and had reason to believe that it could be used to injure the US to an individual not entitled to receive it. Count Two alleged that he had conspired with other individuals to unlawfully disclose that same sensitive information to a reporter of a national news publication.

According to a 2019 investigation report by the US Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced the OIG’s conclusion that the memos allegedly provided to a New York Times reporter was official FBI records, noting that this placed him in violation of his FBI Employment Agreement. The OIG’s conclusion came after the FBI’s determination that Comey may have given the memos to individuals outside the FBI, and after his testimony in Congress regarding the leak.

Comey responded to the charges with a video on Substack, stating: “Well, they’re back again. 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. Nothing has changed with me, I’m still innocent.”

In April 2026, Comey was indicted in North Carolina for violating 18 U.S.C. § 871, for “knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States.” Comey made an Instagram post of seashells arranged to say 86-47, which means “to get rid of the President of the United States.” 

In September 2025, the US Department of Justice filed a case against Comey for violating the Appointments clause in the US Constitution when they appointed Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as Interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.