The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for a second time for disseminating a controversial photograph on social media—an image that allies of President Donald Trump linked to a perceived threat to “get rid of” the Republican leader.
The post—which Comey has since deleted—featured seashells arranged to form the numbers 86 and 47. The former is slang used in urban contexts to refer to discarding or getting rid of something, while the latter corresponds to Trump’s current term as the 47th President of the United States.
In a subsequent social media post in May, the former FBI director commented that he intended the image as a “political message” and did not realize the numbers were associated with violence, insisting that he does not support committing or inciting violent acts.
Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that these events would be investigated by the Secret Service on the grounds that they incited an assassination attempt against Trump. Department of Justice attorneys have filed the formal indictment against Comey in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to CNN.
This second indictment comes after Comey—who was fired by Donald Trump during his first term—was charged in September of last year with perjury and obstruction of Congress. However, those charges were dismissed after the appointment of Lindsey Halligan—a former attorney for the President who had filed the indictment—as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was ruled unlawful.
The allegations stem from a 2020 congressional hearing during which Comey allegedly lied by denying any involvement in the leak of information regarding alleged ties between Trump and the Russian government.
