Follow-Up: Justice Department Says It May Bring More Charges Against Comey, Seeks Grand Jury Indictment
Washington — The Justice Department told a federal judge on Friday that it may bring more charges against former FBI Director James Comey, saying prosecutors are working to obtain an indictment from a Washington, D.C., grand jury and have gathered additional evidence in the case, CNN reported. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden must now decide whether the placeholder charges can survive while that effort goes forward.
The case stems from charges brought in early October accusing Comey of conspiring in 2016 to share sensitive information with a media outlet in order to correct reporting from another outlet. The charges were filed as an information, meaning no judge or grand jury approved them and they cannot by themselves move the case forward. Two previous Justice Department investigations into the alleged leak did not result in charges, including one led by Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, who declined to bring charges in 2018. Prosecutors said Friday they had received new information since Durham's investigation.
Justice Department attorneys told the court they are considering charging Comey with alleged crimes that occurred after October 2016, including through April 2017, which bears on the 10-year deadline for bringing charges under the Espionage Act. They argued that the term indictment in the law should be understood more broadly as a charging act, not merely a grand jury return. Comey's attorneys told Judge McFadden that the law does not allow a charge brought by information to pause the statute-of-limitations deadline, and that the government had waited until the last minute after a decade.
"There is at least one novel issue," McFadden said near the end of Friday's hearing, adding that it was the Justice Department's prerogative to seek a grand jury indictment before he issues a ruling. He warned prosecutors he would be extremely frustrated if there were a dawn raid on Comey's home, and prosecutors promised nothing like that would happen. Comey's attorney told the court that FBI agents have been placed outside Comey's home and that the case is already hanging over his head.
Related: Former FBI Director Comey Charged a Third Time: DOJ Alleges 2016 Transfer of Defense Information
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部大楼（Robert F. Kennedy 大楼），本案由司法部在联邦法庭推进。GSM 联邦机构固定图库。 / The U.S. Department of Justice headquarters (Robert F. Kennedy Building). GSM federal agency asset library.
- 2026-10-26Former FBI Director James Comey Charged a Third Time: DOJ Alleges 2016 Disclosure of National Defense Information to a Reporter
- 2026-10-31Follow-Up: Justice Department Says It May Bring More Charges Against Comey, Seeks Grand Jury IndictmentThis story
