The Charge
REPORTED. On Monday, Oct. 26, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington unsealed two counts against James Comey, the former FBI director: transmitting national defense information, and conspiring to do so. Prosecutors filed the charges themselves, under seal, on Oct. 5. The filing is a criminal information. No grand jury voted on it, and Comey has not been indicted. McFadden noted that the underlying facts "have been subject to considerable press coverage." NBC →
REPORTED. Both counts rest on one day: Oct. 5, 2016. That morning the New York Times published a story by Charlie Savage on how Yahoo had adapted a spam filter to search its users' email for the government under a secret court order. Prosecutor Dustin Farahnak, a special assistant U.S. attorney, says the story came about because Comey wanted to correct a Reuters report from the day before. He wrote that "Mr. Comey directed staff to speak to Mr. Savage about specific accuracy concerns," and "thereby illegally transferred classified information."
The Clock
REPORTED. The filing date is the story. Oct. 5, 2026 is ten years to the day after the Times article. The Justice Department says it filed the information to "toll," or pause, the statute of limitations, and calls that "a widely recognized practice in federal court" approved by "multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals." Comey's lawyers moved to dismiss on Oct. 9. They argue the government had ten years to bring this case "by obtaining a grand jury indictment," that the longer limit for espionage-type charges does not extend to a prosecutor's own filing, and that the appeals court in Washington has never approved the practice. A former federal prosecutor, Greg Rosen, told NBC the practice is not "widely recognized" and called the filing "vindictive." ABC →
REPORTED. An information cannot carry this case to trial on its own. A felony needs a grand jury indictment unless the defendant waives one, and NBC calls that an unusual step. Before any arraignment, plea or trial, prosecutors would have to go to a grand jury, if the court lets them. McFadden has not ruled on the motion to dismiss.
Looked At Twice Before
REPORTED, AS COMEY'S CLAIM. Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, says two separate prosecution teams investigated the Yahoo story during Trump's first term, and both times the government decided not to bring charges. The Old Goat has not seen a record of those reviews beyond his statement. "Mr. Comey will fight these charges vigorously and in the open," Fitzgerald said.
Three Cases in Thirteen Months
| WHEN | CASE | WHERE IT STANDS |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 25, 2025 | Indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on charges of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, over his Sept. 30, 2020 Senate testimony | Dismissed without prejudice Nov. 24, 2025 by Judge Cameron Currie, who found Lindsey Halligan had not been lawfully appointed U.S. attorney. The government appealed; the Fourth Circuit heard argument Sept. 15, 2026. No ruling found. |
| Apr. 28, 2026 | Indicted in the Eastern District of North Carolina over an Instagram photo of seashells spelling "86 47," which prosecutors call a threat | Motions to dismiss on First Amendment and vindictive-prosecution grounds, filed in July, not yet heard by Judge Louise Flanagan. At the defense's request, unopposed, the arraignment was moved to January 2027; no trial date is set. |
| Oct. 5, 2026 | Information in Washington, D.C.: two counts over the Oct. 5, 2016 disclosure | Unsealed Oct. 26; motion to dismiss pending before Judge McFadden |
Verified, October 26, 2026. REPORTED. The Virginia dismissal and the seashell judge were checked against NBC News and MS NOW reporting. Judge Currie, a South Carolina judge assigned to the case, dismissed the Virginia indictment on Nov. 24, 2025, writing that "Ms. Halligan had no lawful authority to present the indictment." The dismissal was without prejudice. The Justice Department appealed, and at argument on Sept. 15 the Fourth Circuit panel appeared likely to uphold it, per MS NOW. In North Carolina, Judge Louise Flanagan granted the defense's unopposed request on Sept. 25 to move the arraignment to January 2027, and has neither heard nor ruled on the motions to dismiss. NBC → MS NOW →
REPORTED. The re-check turned up a second deadline. The Virginia indictment came on Sept. 25, 2025, five days before the five-year limit on Comey's Sept. 30, 2020 testimony would have run, and after the U.S. attorney there, Erik Siebert, who reportedly opposed bringing charges, was pushed out. Two of the three cases against Comey were filed within days of a statute-of-limitations deadline.
REPORTED. Comey was fired as FBI director by Trump in 2017. In a short video on Monday, he said: "Well, they're back again." He called the case "an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice" and said, "I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary."
What the Old Goat Thinks
OPINION. This is politically motivated, and the paperwork shows it. A prosecutor who believed he had a strong espionage case would not wait until the last day of a ten-year clock and then file something no grand jury has seen. The first Comey case was thrown out because the person who brought it had no lawful authority to. The second turns on whether a picture of seashells is a threat. The third reaches back a decade to a news story Comey's lawyer says was investigated twice and closed twice. When one man is charged three times in thirteen months by the administration of the president who fired him, each case more of a stretch than the last, the pattern is the point.
INFERENCE. The filing was built to keep the case alive, not to win it yet. Filing an information on the deadline lets the department argue later that the clock stopped, and it keeps Comey in court in the meantime. The same department filed a complaint instead of an indictment against two former FBI officials three days ago. The Ones Who Warned → Charging documents that skip a grand jury are becoming a habit when the target is someone the president has named as an enemy. Racing the clock is another: twice now, a case against Comey was filed with days to spare or none at all.
Counter-evidence, plainly. Disclosing classified information to a reporter is a crime no matter who does it or why, and an FBI director is not exempt. If Comey had staff confirm classified details to the Times, that is conduct a court should look at. Some appeals courts have accepted tolling by information, and the department says this is an ongoing investigation. The Old Goat has not read the filing, the Reuters story or the 2016 Times article side by side, and does not know what, if anything, was classified. A judge, not this dispatch, will decide whether the case is on time.