Former FBI director charged over seashell photo deemed threat to Trump
Alanna Durkin Richer And eric tucker
Updated ,first published
Washington: Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged again, this time in connection with an investigation into a social media photo of seashells placed on a beach that authorities say poses a threat to President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
According to the indictment filed on Tuesday (Washington time), Comey is accused of threatening the life of the president and threatening interstate commerce, Reuters reported.
The criminal case is the second against Comey in as many months and is part of a sustained effort by the Trump administration Justice Department to prosecute the Republican president’s political opponents.
The photo of the seashells was released nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured because Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, sought to prove to the president that he was the right person to hold the job permanently.
The Justice Department’s filing of a new case against the former FBI director, months after a separate, unrelated indictment was dismissed, could leave the government open to allegations of a vindictive prosecution and allegations that it went out of its way to target Comey.
Comey led the early months of the investigation into whether the Republican president’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of that year’s election. He was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term, and they have been openly fighting ever since.
Comey’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, and a Justice Department spokesman did not immediately comment.
The claim emerged when Comey shared a photo of the seashells he saw during a walk in the “86 47” formation on Instagram in May. He said he assumed the figures reflected a political message, not a call for violence.
Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some were associating these numbers with violence” and “I oppose all forms of violence, so I removed the post.”
However, Comey was quickly interviewed by the Secret Service after Trump administration officials claimed that Comey had advocated the assassination of the 47th president, Trump.
Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by the AP, says 86 is slang for “to throw away,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service.” He notes: “Among the newest meanings adopted is the meaning ‘to kill’, which is a logical extension of the previous ones. We do not enter it in this sense because of its relative newness and lack of use.”
Trump accused Comey of knowing “exactly what this means” in an interview with Fox News Channel in May.
“A kid would know what that means,” Trump said. “If you’re the director of the FBI and you don’t know what that means, it meant assassination. And he says it loud and clear.”
The former FBI director was indicted in September on charges that he lied to and obstructed Congress regarding testimony he gave in 2020 about whether he allowed a journalist to be given inside information about the investigation. He denied any wrongdoing, and the case was later dismissed after the judge concluded that the prosecutor who brought the indictment had been unlawfully appointed.
Comey was FBI director when Trump took office in 2017; He was appointed by then-Democratic President Barack Obama and before that served as a senior Justice Department official in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush.
But relations were strained from the beginning, including when Comey resisted Trump’s request to pledge his personal loyalty to the president at a private dinner; This angered the FBI director so much that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017, at a time when the FBI was investigating potential ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. That investigation, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that the Trump team welcomed that assistance but lacked sufficient evidence to prove criminal cooperation.
Blanche was promoted from deputy attorney general to acting attorney general earlier this month, replacing Pam Bondi, who frustrated Trump with her efforts to build successful criminal cases against the department’s rivals.
Since then, Blanche has moved quickly to publicize politically charged cases, including one filed last week against the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which is accused by the Justice Department of defrauding donors by paying donors to infiltrate hate groups. The group denied any wrongdoing.
Comey is among many Trump foes who faced investigation last year.
For example, the Justice Department is also conducting a criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, another key figure in the Russia investigation. It’s one of Trump’s chief complaints and a saga for which he and his supporters have long sought retaliation. Brennan has denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission said it would launch an early review of TV station licenses owned by Walt Disney’s ABC network for potential “unlawful discrimination.”
In a two-page order from the FCC Media Bureau, eight Disney-owned stations were ordered to file license renewals by May 28, at least two years earlier than would otherwise be required.
The unusual move comes a day after Trump told ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for a joke he made last week that the US first lady had the appearance of a “widow in waiting”, increasing the US government’s pressure on the media.
The review is linked to the commission’s investigation last year into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices and whether they were discriminatory.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr reviewed evidence that led him to believe the company offered employees different opportunities based on their race and gender, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. In this context, Carr said he believed it was appropriate to expedite the license renewal process and evaluate whether the ABC was operating the stations in the public interest.
AP, Bloomberg
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