Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of US President Donald Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The indictment stems from an investigation into a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against Trump.
It’s the second criminal case the Justice Department has brought against him, who said he assumed the arrangement of shells he saw on a walk, reading “86 47,” was a political message, not a call to violence.
Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service in May after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president.
He deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down.”
Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview in May, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant.”
“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”
