Former FBI director James Comey has been charged by a federal grand jury after being accused of posting a photo of seashells on social media that made threats to harm US President Donald Trump.
Comey, who served as FBI chief from 2013 to 2017, when he was fired during President Trump's first term, is accused of intentionally posting a photo on Instagram of seashells depicting the numbers "86 47".
The now-deleted post from May last year, which was captioned "cool shell formation on my beach walk", is alleged to be a threat against the life of President Trump.
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Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of" or "to refuse service to."
It notes: "Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of 'to kill.' We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use."
Comey insisted he meant no harm towards Trump, but the indictment against him alleges otherwise.
"A reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret [the post] as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States," a Department of Justice statement said.
Comey has been charged with threatening the president, and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years' imprisonment.
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"Threatening the life of the President of the United States is a grave violation of our nation's laws," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
"The grand jury returned an indictment alleging James Comey did just that, at a time when this country has witnessed violent incitement followed by deadly actions against President Trump and other elected officials," he added, referencing the shooting at a White House ball allegedly targeting President Trump last weekend.
Kash Patel, current FBI director and a Trump ally, insisted Comey's post was "disgraceful".
"As the former Director of the FBI, he knew full well the attention and consequences of making such a post," Patel claimed.
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Comey denied the claims when deleting the post last year, 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."
The criminal case is the second in a matter of months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department's relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president.
The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case against the ex-FBI director months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could expose the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target the former FBI director.
Comey had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year's election.
Reported with Associated Press.
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