DOJ indicts ex-FBI director James Comey over Instagram post showing seashells.
The case centers on a photo prosecutors allege was a threat to Donald Trump, while Comey says he is ‘still innocent’.
The DOJ filed new criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director, on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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 sea shells 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. Comey subsequently deleted the post and apologized, saying he didn’t realize 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”.