For the third time that prosecutors have brought criminal charges against the former FBI director, James Comey was charged by the Justice Department over a ten-year-old accusation that he instructed his employees to divulge secret information to a reporter.

According to court documents released on Monday, Comey is accused of leaking a confidential national security document while serving as FBI director in October 2016. According to his lawyers, these accusations were previously looked into but no charges were brought.

In a video that he shared on social media, Comey stated, "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."

However, the Justice Department claims that they have not yet filed formal charges against Comey and that the document that outlines the two charges, known as an information, is unenforceable. According to a statement from the department, the action is instead an attempt to extend the 10-year deadline for filing charges under the Espionage Act against the former FBI director, which ended earlier this month.

According to the DOJ official, "filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognized practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals." "We will not comment further as this is an ongoing criminal investigation."

The Justice Department's decision to prosecute Comey after the statute of limitations expired will ultimately be determined by a judge. Comey filed a motion to dismiss the case earlier this month, claiming that the DOJ filing is insufficient and that an indictment must be made within ten years.

Although the case was unsealed on Monday, there is little information in the records regarding the particular allegations made by the prosecution.

President Donald Trump claimed he was unaware of the fresh allegations when questioned about them on his way back to Washington, DC, from a rally in Mississippi.

"I'm not really knowledgeable about it. According to a pool report, Trump remarked, "I just heard about it." "I don't know anything about James Comey, but I think he's a dirty cop."

Early in Trump's first term, there was controversy over the purported leaks to The New York Times. Comey shared at least one letter detailing his discussions with the president with his staff following Trump's dismissal of him as FBI director. A reporter for the New York Times was then given access to the information.

The Justice Department's inspector general and Special Counsel John Durham, who was brought in to look at the beginnings of the federal investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, have both conducted inquiries into Comey's actions.

Despite criticizing some of the judgments made by Comey and other high-ranking government officials, Durham did not find evidence to sustain criminal proceedings against the three individuals involved in the investigation.

Comey is accused of threatening Trump last spring by sharing a picture of seashells in the sand organized to say "8647" on social media, according to a different criminal allegation that is currently pending in North Carolina. Last year, a court rejected an earlier complaint against Comey for his appearance before Congress regarding media leaks.

Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and senior legal commentator for CNN, stated on Monday that "this is a bizarre, and probably improper, use of a criminal 'information' 'to end-run the statute of limitations." Generally, a defendant must consent to information, and Comey did not give his consent in this case. As a result, it probably cannot prolong the statute of limitations, which would have run out on October 5, 2026.