{"id":611750,"date":"2026-04-28T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611750\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T19:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:02:09","slug":"exclusive-justice-department-indicts-former-fbi-director-james-comey-for-a-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611750\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Justice Department indicts former FBI Director James Comey for a second time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells officials said threatened President Donald Trump, marking the administration\u2019s second attempt to prosecute one of his largest political opponents, three sources first told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has long pressed for his political adversaries to face charges, including the former FBI director he sees as a key leader in the perceived effort to \u201cweaponize\u201d justice system against him.\n <\/p>\n

\n Last May, Comey posted a photo on social media of shells on a beach writing out the numbers \u201c86 47,\u201d which critics said referred to taking out or killing Trump.\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\n When used as slang, the number 86 can refer to getting rid of or tossing something out. Trump is currently the 47th president. Comey posted the photo of the shells, writing in the caption \u201cCool shell formation on my beach walk.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Almost immediately following his post, Republicans and administration officials went full bore in their criticism of Comey at the time, with then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing Comey would be investigated by the Secret Service over what she said was a call \u201cfor the assassination\u201d of Trump.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Secret Service brought Comey in for an hours-long interview with agents in Washington, DC, an uncommon step by the agency over a non-specific threat. Comey told investigators he saw the shells on a beach in North Carolina.\n <\/p>\n

\n Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News following Comey\u2019s post that the former director should be \u201cput behind bars for this\u201d and that she was \u201cvery concerned\u201d for Trump\u2019s life.\n <\/p>\n

\n Comey removed the post the same day, writing on social media that he assumed the shells represented \u201ca political message\u201d but \u201cdidn\u2019t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,\u201d he wrote.\n <\/p>\n

\n Legal and security experts have told CNN<\/a> such a case against Comey may be fruitless, especially given the country\u2019s free speech protections.\n <\/p>\n

\n The case against Comey marks a newly reinvigorated effort by Trump\u2019s Justice Department to convict the former director, who became a staunch critic of the president following his firing by Trump in 2017 over the Russia-meddling investigation.\n <\/p>\n

\n In September of last year, the Justice Department first brought charges against Comey, accusing him of lying to Congress over leaks to the press. The case was dismissed late last year by a federal judge who found that the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia had been improperly appointed, having skirted approval from the Senate.\n <\/p>\n

\n Comey\u2019s attorneys declined to comment for this story.\n <\/p>\n

\n The effort appears to have been reinvigorated by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has picked up the pace in bringing cases that the president has publicly jockeyed for since he was tapped for the role.\n <\/p>\n

\n The former director fell out of favor with Trump before he was first elected president, as Comey\u2019s agency investigated the Trump campaign and ties to Russia. Comey was fired in the months after the inauguration.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since his firing, Comey has become an ardent critic of Trump and key enemy of Republican\u2019s in the White House and Capitol Hill.\n <\/p>\n

\n The story was updated with additional information.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells officials said threatened President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-611750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}