#grand-jury
3 entries with this tag
After Watching Its Earlier Indictments of James Comey Collapse, Trump's Justice Department Charged the Former FBI Director Yet Again — This Time With Two Espionage Act Counts Over an Alleged 2016 Leak of National-Defense Information to a Reporter — but Filed It as a Bare "Criminal Information" on the Very Last Day Before the Ten-Year Clock Ran Out, Without a Grand Jury, a Maneuver Legal Experts Say Likely Cannot Stop the Statute of Limitations and That Comey Can Simply Refuse to Consent To
On October 26, 2026, newly unsealed court documents revealed that the Trump Justice Department had charged former FBI Director James Comey for a third time — now with two counts under the Espionage Act: willfully communicating national-defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, and conspiring to do so. The theory is that Comey, "through one or more co-conspirators," directed someone to disclose national-defense information to a reporter at a national news publication (reported to be the New York Times), with the alleged conduct dated to October 5, 2016. The problem is the calendar and the procedure. The Espionage Act carries a ten-year statute of limitations, which expired on October 5, 2026 — and the DOJ filed not a grand-jury indictment but a bare "criminal information" on that exact last day, apparently because it could not get a grand jury to indict in time. Legal experts, including former prosecutor Elie Honig, say an information filed without a grand jury or the defendant's consent likely cannot toll the ten-year clock, and Comey cannot be tried on an information alone unless he waives indictment — which he has no reason to do. His lawyers moved to dismiss, arguing the statute "explicitly demands" an indictment that the government never secured and that the charge is time-barred. Comey's response was a shrug: "Nothing's changed with me." He is still innocent, he said. This is the third swing at the man Trump fired in 2017, after the earlier cases — including the one built around a photo of seashells — fell apart, and it has the hallmarks of the previous ones: a prosecution driven by the president's grudge rather than a case the government can actually win.
The DOJ Sent Federal Agents to the Homes of Four New York Times Reporters With Grand-Jury Subpoenas — for Reporting That Trump's Qatari Air Force One Lacks Missile Defenses and That the Secret Service Told Him Not to Fly It — and the Prosecutor Who Issued Them Is Trump's Nominee to Run National Intelligence
The Justice Department subpoenaed four New York Times journalists — Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt — ordering them before a Manhattan federal grand jury "in regard to an alleged violation of criminal law." Federal agents delivered some of the subpoenas to the reporters' homes. Their offense: reporting that the Secret Service urged Trump to leave the NATO summit in Turkey aboard the old Air Force One rather than the Qatari-gifted Boeing 747, and that the gifted jet lacks "defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities." The subpoenas were issued by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan — who is himself Trump's nominee to become Director of National Intelligence, with a confirmation hearing days away — and followed a White House meeting involving FBI Director Kash Patel. The Times said it will fight the order. Its newsroom lawyer David McCraw said federal agents on reporters' doorsteps "should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects." The National Press Club called it "an extraordinary assault on the freedom of the press that strikes at the heart of the First Amendment." The DOJ claimed "reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are." The move fits a pattern: the department earlier issued then withdrew similar subpoenas against Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporters, the FBI searched a Post reporter's home in January, and in April 2025 AG Pam Bondi rescinded the Biden-era policy that shielded journalists' records in leak investigations. The reporting being criminalized is the same reporting documented here days ago — that the $400M+ rushed retrofit produced a plane one analyst said was suited to "domestic hops rather than hostile skies."
Trump Handed His Acting AG a Stack of News Articles with "Treason" Written in Sharpie — The DOJ Then Tried to Drag Post and Journal Reporters Before a Grand Jury, and Backed Down
The Washington Post reported on June 23, 2026, that Trump's Justice Department issued grand jury subpoenas this spring to compel reporters from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to testify under oath in a leak investigation — then withdrew them earlier this month after the two newsrooms challenged them in a secret legal fight in the Eastern District of Virginia. The targets were Post national security reporter Ellen Nakashima and three unnamed Wall Street Journal reporters. CNN reported that Trump personally pushed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to issue the subpoenas, handing him a stack of printed articles with the word "Treason" written across them in Sharpie. The leak hunt was driven by Trump's anger over carefully sourced stories warning of the risks of attacking Iran — stories that turned out to be prescient. Compelling a journalist to reveal sources before a grand jury is extraordinarily rare; the National Press Club called it "one of the most aggressive actions against a free and independent press in recent memory." It followed a deliberate dismantling of press protections: in April, AG Pam Bondi rescinded the Biden-era policy shielding reporters' records, and in January the FBI searched the home of Post reporter Hannah Natanson and seized her devices. No reporter testified — but the DOJ offered no explanation for the withdrawal, leaving open whether the subpoenas will simply be reissued.