Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with threateningthe life of US President Donald Trump, an indictment that stems from an imagehebriefly shared on social media.
The image posted on Instagram last year showed seashells forming the numbers “86 47”. “Eighty-six” is a slang term used to mean “eject” or “remove”.
Comey has insisted he did not know what the numbers on the image meant, but Trump and other administration officials have said the post was a threat against the 47th president.
Responding to the indictment, Comey said: “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.”
The former FBI director was fired by Trump during his first term, after leading an investigation into Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election.
Since then, Trump has repeatedly called for his prosecution – Tuesday’s charges marking the second attempt to do so.
“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, but nothing has changed with me,” Comey said in a statement.
Comey faces charges of making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to court documents.
“While this case is unique, and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters on Tuesday.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison
US Secret Service agents interviewed Comey last May about the seashell photo.
Comey deleted the Instagram post, saying in a follow-up that he “assumed [the seashells] were a political message”.
“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he added. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Trump, who has long criticised Comey, said of the post that “a child knows what that meant”.
During the press conference on Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel said that as the former director of the FBI, Comey “knew full well the attention and consequences of making such a post”.
Some legal experts said the indictment appeared insubstantial and raised new questions about the DOJ’s efforts to target Trump’s perceived political opponents.
“It’s very thin,” said Michael Gerhardt, a constitution law expert at the UNC School of Law.
Comey’s social media post will likely be viewed by courts as free speech that is protected by the first amendment, Gerhardt added.
“The Trump administration is yet again trying to use its powers simply to make their critics spend money on lawyers and waste time,” he said.
Notre Dame Law School professor Jimmy Gurulé, a former federal prosecutor and former assistant US Attorney General said the new indictment is “an embarrassment to the American criminal justice system”.
“The damage to the credibility, integrity and reputation of the U.S. Department of Justice may be immeasurable,” Gurulé said in a statement to the BBC. “Every DOJ lawyer that played a role in returning this frivolous indictment should be ashamed.”
This is the second time the justice department has brought charges against Comey.
Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury in late September on charges that he lied to Congress during testimony in September 2020 and obstructed a congressional proceeding.
The indictment came days after Trump called on the country’s top law enforcement official to more aggressively investigate his political adversaries, including Comey.
Comey pleaded not guiltyduring a brief court appearance in October before the case was dismissed in November.
US District Judge Cameron Currie tossed the indictment against Comey because of prosecutor Lindsey Halligan’s “invalid” appointment as US attorney.
Halligan, the prosecutor in eastern Virginia who secured the indictments, was not authorised to present the charges to the grand jury, the judge said.Halligan is a former White House aide who had never prosecuted a case before.
The judge, however, left the door open for the government to try again.
Earlier on Tuesday, a separate judge ruled that former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey – James Comey’s daughter – can move forward with her case challenging her firing by the Trump administration. (BBC)