Former FBI director indicted for allegedly threatening Trump’s life

A grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey Tuesday and issued a warrant for his arrest on allegations that he threatened the life of  President Donald Trump in a social media image he posted last May.  Comey is facing a federal charge of  knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon Trump, according to a Tuesday news conference held by Department of Justice officials. He was also charged with knowingly and willfully transmitting via interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to kill the president of the United States. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters Tuesday.

What kind of social media image? Comey posted an image of shells on a beach formed into the numbers 8647. The number 86 is an American slang term that can mean “get rid of” or “kill.” The number 47 could refer to Trump, the 47th president. Comey later removed the post, saying he meant the message to be purely political and did not realize it could have a violent connotation.

Wasn’t Comey facing legal troubles in the past? In an unrelated case, the Trump administration indicted Comey last year on charges of lying to Congress after he testified about the FBI’s handling of the 2016 Russian interference probe. In November, a federal judge dismissed Comey’s case and a case against Manhattan District Attorney Letitia James without prejudice. The Justice Department did not respond to WORLD’s request for comment Tuesday afternoon.  

Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, is also embroiled in her own litigation with the Justice Department. The former federal prosecutor was fired from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York last summer and sued the DOJ for wrongful termination. Comey had worked in the office for nearly 10 years and was part of prosecutions against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The Justice Department had requested to move her case out of federal court and into an executive branch agency instead. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman wrote that Comey appeared to be an exemplary assistant U.S. attorney and that her firing appeared to be politically motivated, meaning the case should remain in the judiciary branch.

Dig deeper: Read my report about the top three indictments against Trump’s political opponents.