Former FBI Director James Comey made headlines late last month when he was indicted over allegations that he lied to Congress five years ago.

Although Comey has denounced the indictment as being groundless, a newly released set of emails don't back up that claim. 

Emails were sent to a law professor hired by Comey

As the Daily Caller noted on Monday, Comey is accused of misleading lawmakers when he denied authorizing "someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports" concerning the 2016 investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The former FBI director's attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the charge, arguing that it is an example of politically motivated selective prosecution.

In response, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a court filing on Monday which contained a trove of email communications between Comey and law professor Daniel Richman.

Richman was granted a Top-Secret security clearance in 2016 after the then-FBI director hired him as a "Special Government Employee."

Comey said that "President-elect Clinton will be very grateful"

One email showed Comey congratulating Richman after the publication of a New York Times article for which he served as an anonymous source.

Titled "These Are the Bad (and Worse) Options James Comey Faced," it reviewed how Comey could have responded to the FBI's discovery of "thousands of new emails" from Clinton's private server.

"Well done my friend," Comey wrote to Richman in an email sent on  November 2, 2016. "Who knew this would. E so uh fun."

That message came after an earlier email in which the pair discussed a possible op-ed piece which the Times had asked Richman to write.

"No need. At this point it would [be] shouting into the wind," Comey asserted. "Some day they will figure it out. And as Jack and Ben point out, my decision will be one a president elect Clinton will be very grateful for (although that wasn’t why I did it)."

DOJ: Emails prove "Richman corresponded extensively with members of the media"

The Daily Caller noted how prosecutors argued in their filing that the emails show "Richman corresponded extensively with members of the media regarding or on behalf of the defendant, including in an anonymous capacity."

"The true affront to the criminal justice system would be to allow the defendant to escape accountability for lying to and obstructing Congress under oath about actions he took while serving as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they continued.

"The indictment was presented by a duly appointed and unbiased prosecutor. And a duly constituted grand jury found probable cause that he committed the indicted offenses," the prosecutors went on to add.