The US Department of Justice has filed new charges against former FBI Director James Comey for illegally passing classified information. Comey is charged with violating the Espionage Act by passing on national defense information to an unauthorized person. The new charges stem from allegations that in October 2016 Comey provided national defense information to an unnamed individual for publication in a newspaper. According to court documents, on October 5, 2016, The New York Times published an article with the headline “Yahoo Reportedly Helped U.S. Email Surveillance by Changing Spam Filter. He cited information from two unnamed government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Justice Department says it found evidence that Comey tried to "correct misinformation that appeared in the press the day before thanks to Reuters" and also "directed staff" to speak with a New York Times reporter about the veracity of the Reuters story. Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said his client "consistently maintains his innocence." A grand jury did not indict him, and no criminal complaint was filed against him. Instead, the case was brought through the filing of a "Charging Information Document." Fitzgerald said the indictment "accuses Mr. Comey of crimes he did not commit." He also noted that investigators looked into the matter twice during the first administration of Donald Trump and "concluded that no one was to blame." Donald Trump in Russian.

The US Department of Justice has filed new charges against former FBI Director James Comey for illegally passing classified information. Comey is charged with violating the Espionage Act by passing on national defense information to an unauthorized person. The new charges stem from allegations that in October 2016 Comey provided national defense information to an unnamed individual for publication in a newspaper. According to court documents, on October 5, 2016, The New York Times published an article with the headline “Yahoo Reportedly Helped U.S. Email Surveillance by Changing Spam Filter. He cited information from two unnamed government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Justice Department says it found evidence that Comey tried to "correct misinformation that appeared in the press the day before thanks to Reuters" and also "directed staff" to speak with a New York Times reporter about the veracity of the Reuters story. Comey's attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said his client "consistently maintains his innocence." A grand jury did not indict him, and no criminal complaint was filed against him. Instead, the case was brought through the filing of a "Charging Information Document." Fitzgerald said the indictment "accuses Mr. Comey of crimes he did not commit." He also noted that investigators looked into the matter twice during the first administration of Donald Trump and "concluded that no one was to blame." Donald Trump in Russian.