Comey Team Seeks Dismissal of Third Case

Ten years. That is the length of the statute of limitations at the center of a new legal battle for former FBI Director James Comey. His legal team will argue this week that the government failed to act in time to bring a federal criminal case against him.

The dispute stems from a criminal information filed on October 5, 2026. That date marks exactly ten years after a New York Times report detailed how Yahoo complied with a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to scan user emails. Prosecutors claim Comey authorized staff to contact a reporter in October 2016 to correct the record on that story.

Comey’s attorneys contend the case is invalid because the government did not obtain a grand jury indictment before the 10-year window closed. Instead of a jury vote or a criminal complaint signed by a judge, the Department of Justice filed the charges directly via a criminal information. This procedural shortcut has drawn sharp criticism from legal experts.

Sarah Krissoff, a former federal prosecutor, said the method used to file the case undermines the government’s own complaint. She noted that if the Justice Department possessed a valid case, they should have presented it to a grand jury or secured a judge’s signature on a complaint. Krissoff described the handling of the situation as disturbing and suggested someone was dictating the process without proper legal footing.

This is the third federal criminal case brought against Comey in the past 13 months. The first case originated in September 2025 in the Eastern District of Virginia. A Trump-aligned attorney, Lindsey Halligan, convinced a grand jury to return an indictment in that instance. However, the case was later tossed after it was determined Halligan was acting as a federal prosecutor unlawfully.

The second case, often referred to as the seashells case, remains pending in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Prosecutors there alleged that an Instagram photo posted by Comey, which featured seashells arranged to spell out 8647, constituted a threat against the president. Comey’s team argues the image was a reference to a common restaurant term meaning a dish is out of stock. A federal judge has not yet ruled on that matter and has delayed the trial until 2027.

Comey’s legal team suspected the government filed the latest case under seal on October 5 to time the arrest for the Friday before Columbus Day weekend. They believed prosecutors intended to execute an after-hours arrest, ensuring Comey would sit in jail over the long holiday period.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the case unsealed on Monday. He has set a hearing for Friday to address Comey’s motion to dismiss the charges.

The hearing concludes a week of intense focus on political cases in federal courts in Washington. On the same week, a federal grand jury rejected the administration’s attempt to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, a key witness for the House January 6 committee. Additionally, a federal magistrate judge spent several days hearing arguments on the validity of charges brought against two former FBI employees.

Krissoff stated that federal grand juries are holding tight to the rule of law by demanding real evidence. She expressed gratitude for the federal judiciary, saying they are holding the country together in her view.