US Justice Department indicts former FBI Director Comey a second time, source says - Reuters
US Justice Department indicts former FBI Director Comey a second time, source says Reuters
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"I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize 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."
— James Comey , Other
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<a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiwgFBVV95cUxOOXhNSkt0VTdibjdhYUNaOVNrX1BtMHp6aUh1LXM0MDRaYzlSLVpKbFBwU0MzZGdQai1saW9yMWVVM3ZtMEgwOFVOVjRJWlhFc2prOVZYMjRfR2syZmN5NGhVSDZlMWI3ZXFxRlRGeV9BNzN0elFuaDFmazRseEFCNUFyd0ZZNFU2MndRUWpad0VETlVFanFJM1hEdDhtSTVvWUtwUG9SMHVvTW45RXpvdDFMSTlzSUZtSzJmajYtVlFrQQ?oc=5" target="_blank">US Justice Department indicts former FBI Director Comey a second time, source says</a> <font color="#6f6f6f">Reuters</font>
The U.S. Department of Justice has brought a new criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey, a source familiar with the case said on Tuesday. The specific charges were not yet clear, nor was it clear where the case would be brought. Fox News, citing unnamed sources, reported the case was about a social media post Comey made last year that Trump allies interpreted as threatening. The post, which was published on Comey’s Instagram page in May 2025, showed an image of seashells arranged to show the numbers "86 47." In U.S. parlance, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, and 47 is code for Trump, the 47th president.
CNN reported on Tuesday that the Justice Department has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for a second time. CNN cited two sources familiar that Comey would be indicted for the second time, although the charges remain unclear. The Justice Department indicted the former FBI Director last September, when the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused him of lying to Congress over leaks to the press. The case was dismissed last year by a federal judge who believed that the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was improperly appointed to the position. Fox News reported that this indictment may be in relation to an Instagram photo he posted of an "8647" shell formation on a beach. He later deleted the post and claimed that he did not mean to associate the message with a threat against Donald Trump. He wrote in May 2025, "I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize 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." Comey’s attorneys declined to comment to CNN about the reported indictments. The media outlet stated that the efforts appear to have been "reinvigorated" by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has increasingly picked up the pace since he has led the Justice Department in pursuing cases that the president has emphasized.
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