The Fallout from James Comey’s Indictment: Key Takeaways

WASHINGTON: Form­­er FBI director James Comey has been indicted again, US media reported on Tuesday, five months after a previous case against the outspoken critic of President Donald Trump was thrown out.

The New York Times said the indictment stems from a social media post by Com­ey but did not specify the exact charge. Comey made a now-deleted post on Inst­agram last year that sho­w­ed the numbers “86 47” spelled out in sea shells.

Trump alleged in an interview with Fox News at the time that “86” was slang for kill and the “47” was a reference to his being the 47th president.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said. “That meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear.” Comey said on Instagram that he posted “a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.” “I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he said.

Comey, 65, was charged in September with making false statements to Congr­e­ss and obstructing a congressional proceeding in what was widely seen as retribution by the Repub­lican president against a political opponent.

A federal judge threw out the case in November on the grounds that the US attorney handpicked by Trump who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.

Comey was appointed to head the FBI by president Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017.

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