Trump DOJ Pursuing Separate Comey Probe for Classified Leaks

The Justice Department is pursuing additional charges against James Comey for allegedly leaking classified information, after the former FBI director’s unrelated indictment this week in North Carolina, said two people familiar with the matter.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia office that failed in its first criminal case against Comey last year for alleged false statements to Congress, have in recent weeks revived their separate, but interrelated, pursuit of Comey. The investigation is tied to his dissemination of documents to Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, the individuals added. If successful, it would be the Trump DOJ’s third time indicting Comey since last fall.

Ever since Todd Blanche was elevated to acting attorney general, there have been active meetings on the classified information case between the deputy attorney general’s office and small team of EDVA prosecutors, said the people, who spoke anonymously about sensitive deliberations.

It hasn’t been decided if the department will present an indictment to a grand jury in Eastern Virginia, where Comey resides, or if the case could be pursued in a different location—such as in Richman’s home of New York.

Although timing of seeking an indictment is unclear, this latest national security investigation is on top of Comey’s alleged social media threat of the president for which eastern North Carolina prosecutors obtained an indictment April 28.

The classified information case had stalled out after EDVA initially reviewed it last year, but there’s now heightened pressure under Blanche’s leadership to reopen matters important to the president.

Trump has long called Comey a leaker, referencing information he sent to Richman that wound up in a 2017 New York Times article.

The earlier prosecution of Comey in Virginia, which a judge dismissed last year, stemmed from testimony Comey made to Congress about whether he’d leaked information to the media.

Comey defense attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and a DOJ spokesperson both declined to comment.