The Justice Department has criminally charged the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey over a decade-old allegation that he ordered his staff to leak classified information to a reporter.
Court filings on Monday showed that Mr Comey was charged over allegedly leaking a sensitive national security document when he was FBI director in October 2016.
Mr Comey, however, said investigators previously looked into the allegations without bringing charges.
“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,” he stated in a video on Monday.
Mr Comey insisted that he remained innocent, saying he believed in an independent judiciary.
He added, “Nothing changes with me. I am still innocent. I am not afraid of these people and still believe in fair and independent judiciary.”
Meanwhile, the Justice Department noted that the criminal investigation into Mr Comey’s allegation is still ongoing.
“Filing a criminal information to toll the statute of limitations is a widely recognised practice in federal court and has been approved by multiple Circuit Courts of Appeals. This is an ongoing criminal investigation, and we will not comment further,” it stated.
Earlier this month, Mr Comey moved to dismiss the case, arguing that an indictment was required within 10 years.
Mr Comey was accused of knowingly and willfully causing national defence information to be “communicated, delivered and transmitted to a person not entitled to receive it” around October 4 and 5 of 2016.
Court documents in the case pointed to an October 5 article in The New York Times, describing a novel use of surveillance authority involving Yahoo emails.
The controversy over the alleged leaks started in the early days of President Donald Trump’s first administration.
After he was fired as FBI director, Mr Comey shared at least one memo with his team describing his conversations with the president. The information was then shared with a New York Times reporter.
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