WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey is facing two federal felony charges over an alleged 2016 disclosure of classified information about government surveillance techniques to The New York Times, according to court records unsealed Monday. Prosecutors allege Comey authorized then-FBI General Counsel James Baker to share the information. The disclosure was connected to a Times report about Yahoo changing its spam filter to accommodate FBI surveillance requests, the Justice Department said in a court filing. The charges were filed earlier this month, after the case had been kept under seal for weeks. Comey “categorically denies that he violated the law,” his attorneys said in a filing. They argue the Justice Department examined the episode twice during President Donald Trump’s first term and declined to bring charges both times. The defense also contends the deadline for prosecuting the alleged offenses passed Oct. 5. Comey’s lawyers say prosecutors improperly sought to use a 10-year limit that applies to certain national-security offenses to revive the case. The prosecution adds to a series of legal battles involving the former FBI chief, whom Trump fired in 2017. Comey is separately indicted in North Carolina over an Instagram image of seashells arranged to spell “8647,” which prosecutors allege threatened the president. He has denied wrongdoing in that case. A Virginia case accusing Comey of making false statements and obstructing Congress over his 2020 testimony was dismissed after a judge found that the U.S. attorney involved had been unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling. The new charges put the handling of classified information and the time limits for prosecuting alleged national-security offenses at the center of another high-profile dispute over the Justice Department’s treatment of a former senior law-enforcement official.