By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The US Justice Department is attempting to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for a third time, the latest case accusing him of sharing sensitive national security information in 2016, according to court documents made public on Monday.
The case was revealed in a court document known as a "criminal information" that the Justice Department said it filed to stop the 10-year statute of limitations on the offense from expiring earlier this month.
The document filed in Washington federal court charges Comey with transmitting and conspiring to transmit national defense information. It alleges he shared classified information with a reporter from the New York Times in October 2016.
Comey said in a video on Instagram that "they're back again" and referenced the Justice Department, but did not provide further details. "I'm still innocent," he added. Comey's lawyers have already asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing it is legally improper because a grand jury indictment is needed to halt the statute of limitations.
Prosecutors will still need a grand jury to approve an indictment for Comey to face trial on the charges. DOJ lawyers argued the charges were essentially a placeholder to allow prosecutors to bring an indictment later on.
The new case adds to the legal fights facing Comey, whom the Justice Department has already charged twice, accusing him of lying to Congress about media leaks and threatening President Donald Trump in a social media post. A judge dismissed the false statements case, while the threats case remains pending.
Comey has been at the forefront of the Trump DOJ's attempts to investigate and prosecute perceived political enemies of the president. Trump fired Comey as FBI director during his first term in 2017 as Comey was overseeing an investigation into potential ties between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
Trump has long demanded Comey's prosecution, blaming him for an investigation that consumed much of his first term. Comey has in turn called Trump unfit to be president and alleged the cases against him are vindictive and brought at Trump's behest.
Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a statement that the document "purports to charge Mr. Comey with crimes that he did not commit" and vowed to vigorously fight the allegations. The criminal information was filed on October 5, but was unsealed on Monday at the request of Comey's lawyers.
A Justice Department spokesperson described the maneuver to halt the statute of limitations as a "widely recognized practice in federal court."
"This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"Unlike Joe Biden, President Trump has not weaponized the Department of Justice against his political foes. The Department is focused on restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe," a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
YEARS OF SCRUTINY
Comey has faced years of scrutiny over his actions in 2016, when the FBI investigated both Trump's campaign and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The latest case relates to his alleged decision to authorize staff to share classified information with a reporter from the New York Times for a 2016 article about US government surveillance, according to unsealed court documents in the case. The article reported on a secret court order that required Yahoo to search for email messages the government believed were tied to an unnamed foreign terrorist group.
US prosecutors allege that Comey wanted the information disclosed to correct what a court document describes as misinformation from a Reuters article the previous day that said Yahoo had built a custom software program to search all its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by US intelligence officials.
"Yahoo is a law-abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States," the company said in a statement at the time.
The issue renewed long-running debates in the United States about the balance between digital privacy and national security.
A spokesperson for the New York Times declined to comment on sources for reporting, but said "prosecutions like this one are designed to discourage sources from providing journalists with the kind of valuable and illuminating information that the public needs to know.” A Reuters spokesperson declined to comment.
Comey's lawyers said the episode had been investigated by two different teams of prosecutors during Trump's first term and no charges were brought.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Ismail Shakil and Costas Pitas; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Michael Learmonth)
