Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged for the third time with federal crimes, in a criminal complaint made public on Monday in the United States District Court in Washington, D.C., CNBC reported. The complaint charges him with knowingly communicating information related to national defense to a person not entitled to receive it and with conspiring with others to violate the law against sharing such information, alleging that, through one or more co-conspirators, he directed an unnamed individual to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication. Reuters, carried by Investing.com, reported that the charges accuse him of transmitting and conspiring to transmit national defense information in October 2016, according to the court documents. Comey responded in a video on Instagram that the Justice Department was back again and that he was still innocent, Reuters reported, and his lawyers have already asked a judge to dismiss the case. The complaint came to light hours after a federal judge in New York ruled that the Justice Department had unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter Maurene Comey last year as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. Comey was first indicted in September 2025 in Virginia on false statement and obstruction charges over his 2020 Senate testimony, a case later dismissed, and was indicted in North Carolina in late April over an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged as “86 47”, which prosecutors treat as a threat against President Donald Trump and which he denies and is seeking to have dismissed.
Comey charged in third case over defense information
Former FBI Director James Comey was charged in a criminal complaint made public on Monday with knowingly communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it and with conspiring to do so, his third federal criminal case
Why it matters: A third prosecution of a former FBI director, this time over an alleged 2016 disclosure to a reporter, extends the Justice Department's run of cases against one of President Trump's most prominent critics, after an earlier indictment was dismissed and a second is still being fought
Data as of CNBC report of October 26, 2026, read in full via browser, is the source for the charges, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia filing, the allegation that Comey acted through one or more co-conspirators, and the two earlier cases summarised below. Correction, October 26, 2026, 17:49 ET: a fuller read of the Investing.com item, delivered after this story was first published, shows it is a Reuters report with no NBC News attribution, dates the alleged transmission only to October 2016 with no day, and carries Comey's Instagram response and his lawyers' dismissal request, all now in the text; the first version's October 5, 2016 date, its NBC attribution and its statement that Comey was not quoted rested on a shorter first summary of that item and are withdrawn. The court filing itself was not obtained in this run. Developing item.
Sources
- DOJ charges ex-FBI Director James Comey in new case - CNBC - 2026-10-26
- Ex-FBI director Comey charged again by US Justice Department, NBC News reports - Investing.com, with Reuters - 2026-10-26