STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump's Justice Department brought new criminal charges against James Comey - the third time the DOJ has tried to prosecute the former FBI director turned Trump critic. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas has covered all of these prosecutions. Ryan, good morning.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What is the latest case against Comey?
LUCAS: So Comey's facing two criminal counts here for allegedly mishandling national security information that was leaked to the media. And this all revolves around an article published in October of 2016 - so 10 years ago - when Comey was still FBI director. Prosecutors say Comey directed his staff at the FBI to speak to a reporter for The New York Times about U.S. email surveillance, information that the government says then ended up in a Times article. Comey's attorneys say in court papers that this very incident was investigated on two occasions by two separate U.S. attorneys. They say both of those U.S. attorneys declined to prosecute. Now, though, the Justice Department under President Trump is pursuing this case anyway.
INSKEEP: How important is the timing of this latest prosecution?
LUCAS: Well, the timing here is critical. And that's because the article that was published was published on October 5 of 2016. So the 10-year statute of limitations would expire on October 5 of this year, and that's the very day that prosecutors filed this case under seal. Now, there's been a legal fight playing out behind closed doors for the past three weeks because the Justice Department filed what's known as a criminal information, not a grand jury indictment. Comey's attorneys are fighting to get this case dismissed. They say because the government didn't secure an indictment, that means that the 10-year statute of limitations has already expired, and the case should be tossed. The government disagrees. It says that it's following standard practice. The court hasn't ruled on that yet.
INSKEEP: What's Comey saying?
LUCAS: Well, he put out a statement on social media last night. Here's a bit of what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JAMES COMEY: 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.
LUCAS: Now, Comey also vowed to fight the charges. And again, as you said, this is the third time the Justice Department has brought charges against him. The first case was tossed by a court. The second is still pending. Comey is challenging that second case, in part arguing that he's being targeted for political reasons - for his criticism of Trump. Now we have this third case, and it shows the lengths to which the Justice Department will go in its pursuit of this very vocal opponent of President Trump's.
INSKEEP: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Thanks for coming by.
LUCAS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
