Justice department indicts ex-FBI director James Comey over Instagram post showing seashells

Case centers on a photo prosecutors allege was a threat to Donald Trump, while Comey says he is ‘still innocent’

Former FBI Director James Comey  Picture: AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File

The US justice department filed new criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, on Tuesday.

Mr Comey was charged in federal court in the eastern district of North Carolina over a picture he posted on Instagram while on vacation last year in which seashells were arranged to say “86 47”. 

The post was taken as a threat to Donald Trump. The number 86 can be used as shorthand for getting rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president. Mr Comey subsequently deleted the post and apologised, saying he didn’t realise the numbers were associated with violence. 

“It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.

The indictment, made public on Tuesday, says that a reasonable person “would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States”.

Mr Comey was charged with two felonies – making a threat against the president and transmitting that threat, via social media, across state lines. Both counts are punishable with a fine and a prison sentence of up to five years.

“I think it’s fair to say that threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime. Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice,” Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said at a press conference on Tuesday. Mr Blanche declined to comment on how the justice department would prove Mr Comey had the intent to harm Mr Trump, saying that doing so would be premature.

CNN first reported that a new indictment had been filed.

“Mr Comey vigorously denies the charges contained in the indictment filed in the eastern district of North Carolina,” Comey’s attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, said in a response to the charges. “We will contest these charges in the courtroom and look forward to vindicating Mr Comey and the First Amendment.” 

Later on Tuesday, Mr Comey published a video of himself speaking to the camera on his personal Substack: “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. I am still innocent. I am still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So, let’s go.” 

Mr Comey continued: “It’s really important that all of us remember – this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the department of justice is supposed to be, and the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith.”

The justice department previously indicted Mr Comey last year and charged him with lying to Congress. That case was dismissed when a judge in the eastern district of Virginia ruled that the prosecutor overseeing the case had been wrongfully appointed.

Mr Comey has long been the subject of Mr Trump’s wrath over his investigation into Mr Trump’s ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's allies had called for the former FBI director to be punished. Even though the post was widely seen as a non-violent anti-Trump expression, federal law enforcement officials investigated the matter and interviewed Mr Comey.

The new indictment marks the latest instance in which Mr Trump’s justice department has used its power to target the US president’s political enemies. The justice department also criminally charged Letitia James, the New York attorney general, last year on thin allegations of mortgage fraud. The case was dismissed for the same reason Mr Comey’s earlier case was tossed.

Mr Blanche, the acting attorney general, is said to want the job permanently. He has moved quickly to push forward on investigations and charges related to Mr Trump's rivals after the president fired Pam Bondi for not moving aggressively enough.

The justice department is also accelerating an inquiry into John Brennan, the former CIA director, and last week filed flimsy criminal charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center. A former top aide to Anthony Fauci was also criminally charged on Tuesday over allegations he concealed federal records related to research into the coronavirus in bats.

The charges come after a California man was stopped with weapons at the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington on Saturday and charged with attempting to assassinate the president.

In a separate case on Tuesday, a federal judge in New York ruled that Mr Comey’s daughter, Maurene, could proceed with a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging she was wrongfully dismissed as a federal prosecutor last year.

-The Guardian