Former FBI director James Comey charged for the third time as he’s accused of leaking national defense information

Former FBI Director James Comey was criminally charged by the Justice Department  Monday for a third time – an extraordinary effort to prosecute one of President Donald Trump’s biggest perceived political foes. 

Comey was charged with allegedly communicating national defense information, and conspiring to transmit national defense information, according to newly unsealed court records. 

The charges were filed in federal court in Washington, DC, and appear to stem from actions Comey took as FBI director, roughly 10 years earlier.

They also mark the third time Comey has been charged by the Justice Department since the start of Trump’s second term. Comey was charged last year in the Eastern District of Virginia for allegedly making false statements to Congress, the day that the statute of limitations for the charges was slated to expire – and later, for allegedly threatening Trump by way of an Instagram photo of seashells, arranged to depict the numbers ’86 47.’

The first case was ordered dismissed by a federal judge last year, and Comey has pleaded not guilty in the second case – describing both efforts as the result of ‘vindictive’ and selective prosecutions.

Few details were made available in the new case against Comey, though the criminal complaint was unsealed on the same day a judge ordered that the Justice Department illegally fired his daughter, Maurene Comey, from her job as a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York.

She was ordered reinstated to her role with back pay.  

This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for more.