Former FBI Director James Comey accused President Donald Trump’s Justice Department of misusing its authority after prosecutors renewed their pursuit of criminal charges against him, while his daughter secured a separate courtroom victory over her dismissal from federal service.
The two developments unfolded Monday, with Comey publicly defending himself against allegations involving classified information and a New York judge finding that the administration had violated employment law in removing his daughter, Maurene Comey.
In a video shared through Substack, the former FBI chief rejected the latest accusations and questioned the department’s conduct.
“Well, they’re back, again. 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. Nothing’s changed with me,” Comey declared.
He insisted that the prosecution had neither changed his account of the underlying events nor weakened his trust in federal judges.
“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary,” he maintained.
🚨 BREAKING — JAMES COMEY CHARGED WITH NEW FEDERAL FELONIES: DOJ accuses disgraced former FBI Director James Comey of violating the ESPIONAGE ACT
This guy is in DEEP SH*T.
Per DOJ, Comey LEAKED national defense information to a national "reporter" via co-conspirators.
Comey… pic.twitter.com/pR6cPr7EV0
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 26, 2026
Prosecutors accuse Comey of directing FBI employees to contact New York Times journalist Charlie Savage in October 2016, allegedly facilitating the transfer of classified information concerning national defense matters.
The government maintains that Comey wanted the journalist to address inaccuracies in a Reuters article published the previous day.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Farahnak presented that explanation in a filing released Monday, identifying the purported corrections as the reason for the communication. Comey disputes the allegations.
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Two criminal counts filed earlier this month accuse him of transmitting national defense information and conspiring to transmit such material. The supporting complaint became public Monday after a judge approved Comey’s request to unseal it.
Exactly 10 years separate the alleged October 5, 2016 disclosure from the government’s filing of its criminal information, a timing issue Comey’s attorneys argue should prevent the prosecution from proceeding.
His legal team maintains that the accusations are based entirely on conduct outside the applicable statute of limitations.
Federal prosecutors counter that the filing of a waiverless criminal information tolled the statutory deadline.
A Justice Department spokesperson defended the procedure as an established practice recognized by multiple federal circuit courts of appeals.
Comey’s lawyers have also sought dismissal on grounds that the underlying allegations previously received consideration from two separate U.S. attorney’s offices, neither of which brought charges.
He was serving as FBI director during the alleged 2016 disclosure, before Trump removed him from the position in May 2017.
An earlier allegation that Comey lied to Congress was dismissed. Another charge remains pending over a social media photograph depicting seashells arranged into a message that was interpreted as an assassination threat against Trump.
Comey has denied threatening the president and maintains that he did not know what the shells meant when he posted the photograph.
With his latest criminal charges still contested, Comey urged Americans not to abandon their confidence in the country’s institutions.
“The next couple years are gonna be hard for all of us,” he warned. “It’s really important that we stand straight and keep the faith in America.”
When asked about the new charges on Monday night, Trump told reporters that he didn’t “know too much about it,” as he had just heard the news.
.@POTUS on James Comey: "I think he's a dirty cop." pic.twitter.com/x1dsUF7Qb6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 27, 2026
In New York, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled that Maurene Comey’s removal from the Justice Department violated protections afforded to federal employees under the Civil Service Reform Act.
The Obama-appointed judge determined that the administration could not rely solely on executive authority to bypass statutory restrictions governing the termination of assistant U.S. attorneys.
The government had conceded that Maurene Comey’s dismissal was unrelated to misconduct or poor job performance. She also received neither advance notice nor an opportunity to respond before losing her position.
Those circumstances proved central to Furman’s conclusion that the department had failed to comply with federal employment requirements, despite the attorney general’s statutory authority to remove federal prosecutors.
“Defendants’ argument that [Constitution] Article II bars Congress from regulating the removal of AUSAs (assistant U.S. attorneys) flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent,” Furman wrote.
He cautioned that accepting such an interpretation would “unsettle the very equilibrium established by this nation’s constitutional system.”
The decision provided Maurene Comey with retroactive reinstatement and compensation covering the period through December 20, 2025, when she moved to another position.
Her career in federal prosecution included approximately a decade in the Southern District of New York, where she worked on the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, and the sex trafficking trial involving music mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
The lawsuit also cited Trump’s extensive public criticism of her father. Maurene Comey identified more than 250 presidential social media posts or reposts concerning the former FBI director, including repeated descriptions of him as the worst person to lead the bureau.
The administration’s defense of her termination rested on the authority of the attorney general, with officials identifying former Attorney General Pam Bondi as having ordered the removal and Todd Blanche as having ratified it while serving in an acting capacity.
Maurene Comey’s own account of losing her job was considerably less detailed. In a message to colleagues, she described being “summarily fired via memo,” without receiving an explanation or knowing who had made the decision.
Furman has also criticized the administration’s handling of deportation proceedings involving Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, a dispute in which federal attorneys sought to transfer the litigation to New Jersey.
Maurene Comey’s lawyers welcomed Monday’s ruling in a statement, characterizing the outcome as a “hard-earned” victory for their client and other civil servants.
They argued that the decision reaffirmed constitutional limits on presidential power and reinforced the principle that executive authority remains subject to legal constraints.
A Justice Department spokesperson offered a different response, commenting, “The Department disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”
