WASHINGTON, July 30 -- The man who ran the FBI for four years has gone to federal court and accused his prosecutors of lying to get search warrants against him.

James Comey's defense team filed misconduct motions on Tuesday in the Eastern District of North Carolina, asking a judge to dismiss the criminal indictment that has shadowed the former FBI director since April. The filings allege that affidavits submitted in support of at least two of the search warrants used to build the case contained "intentionally false statements and material omissions." Investigators who knew their theory was unsupported by the evidence they had gathered left that evidence out of the applications entirely.

The case began with a photograph. Last year, Comey...