Seashell post leads to indictment of James Comey for alleged threat to Donald Trump
U.S. former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey arrives to give closed-door testimony to the House Oversight and House Judiciary committees, as part of their probes into Comey’s 2016 handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email use, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 17, 2018. PHOTO:REUTERS
Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted for threatening the life of Donald Trump, officials said Tuesday, five months after a previous case against the outspoken critic of the US president was thrown out.
The indictment by a grand jury in North Carolina stems from an Instagram post the 65-year-old Comey made in May last year that showed the numbers “86 47” spelt out in seashells.
Trump alleged in an interview with Fox News at the time that “86” was slang for kill and “47” was a reference to his being the 47th president.
“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said. “That meant assassination”.
Comey responded dismissively to the charges and vowed to fight them.
“Well, they’re back this time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago, and this won’t be the end of it,” Comey said in a video statement posted on social media.
“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go.”
The indictment alleges the “86 47” reference in the seashell pattern was a “serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States”.
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Comey faces one count of “willfully making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States” and another of making an interstate threat.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
“I think it’s fair to say that threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime,” Blanche said. “Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice.”
Comey apologised at the time for the Instagram post and said he “didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence”.
“It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” he said.
Comey’s indictment comes three days after a gunman was arrested for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump during a Washington dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Comey was charged in September with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding in what was widely seen as retribution by the Republican president against a political opponent.
A federal judge threw out the case on the grounds that the US attorney handpicked by Trump, who brought the charges, was unlawfully appointed.
The judge tossed a separate case at the same time that was brought against another Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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Another Trump critic, his former national security advisor John Bolton, has been indicted for allegedly transmitting and retaining classified information.
‘Petty retribution’
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin denounced the latest prosecution of Comey, calling the indictment “baseless” and “petty retribution”.
“This is another case of a weaponised Justice Department lashing out on behalf of a vengeful president,” Durbin said in a statement.
Comey was appointed to head the FBI by former President Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017 amid a probe into whether members of Trump’s presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.
The September charges against Comey came days after Trump publicly urged then-attorney general Pam Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and others — a stunning departure from the principle that the Justice Department must be free from White House pressure.
Bondi was fired this month, reportedly in part because of her failure to secure indictments of Trump’s political opponents.
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Since taking office, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.
Blanche, named acting attorney general after Bondi’s firing, has defended the investigations into his opponents.
“It is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president, in the past, has had issues with and believes should be investigated,” he said. “That is his right, and indeed, it is his duty to do that”.
Comey’s indictment came on the same day a judge ruled that his daughter, Maurene Comey, can proceed with a lawsuit alleging that her firing as a federal prosecutor last year was politically motivated.
