James Comey surrenders to authorities after DoJ indictment | James Comey
James Comey appeared briefly in court Wednesday after the Justice Department charged him over a renewed social media post aimed at prosecuting a longtime political rival of Donald Trump.
The former FBI director was indicted Tuesday in North Carolina over a photo he posted last year of seashells listed with the numbers “86 47”; This message, the justice department says, amounts to a threat to Trump, the 47th US president.
The indictment was made public on TuesdayHe said a reasonable person “would interpret it as a serious expression of intent to harm the President of the United States.”
Comey responded with a video from his personal account speaking to the camera bottom stack on the same day he will declare: “I am still innocent.”
“Well, they’re back,” Comey said in the video released Tuesday. “This time, it’s about the photo of seashells taken on a beach in North Carolina a year ago. And it won’t be the last time, but nothing has changed about me. I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid. And I still believe in an independent federal judiciary. So let’s go.”
Comey said he assumed the figures reflected a political message, not a call for violence against the Republican president, and that he removed the post as soon as he saw that some people were interpreting it that way. “This never occurred to me, but I am against all forms of violence, so I removed the post,” he said. In a subsequent post on Instagram, she wrote:.
The indictment is the second the justice department has filed against Comey. The department last year accused Comey of lying to Congress. But that case was dismissed by a judge in the eastern district of Virginia, who ruled that the prosecutor overseeing the case had been appointed in error.
Comey has long been subject to Trump’s wrath, dating back to the president’s first term when he led the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia. Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017, just four years into his 10-year term.
Trump’s allies have since called for the former FBI director to be punished. In September, Trump complained about the lack of charges against Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James in an article he wrote on social media to then-attorney general Pam Bondi. The justice department last year indicted the New York attorney general on thin allegations of mortgage fraud. It was dismissed on the same basis as the case against Comey.
The new indictment marks the latest example of Trump using the power of the justice department to target the US president’s political enemies.
Trump fired Bondi earlier this month because he believed Bondi wasn’t acting aggressively enough to prosecute his rivals. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who reportedly wants the job permanently, quickly renewed efforts to go after Comey and stepped up the investigation into former CIA director John Brennan, a frequent target of Trump.
But legal experts say prosecutors may have a hard time making a case against Comey for his post, which is widely seen as a non-violent anti-Trump statement. Immediately afterwards, federal law enforcement investigated the matter and interviewed Comey.
