Arrest warrant issued for former FBI Director James Comey

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted for a second time by the US Justice Department over a photo he posted on social media last year that some interpreted as a message to “kill” President Donald Trump, according to media reports Tuesday.

Comey posted a photo on Instagram last May showing seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47,” which critics said referred to “taking out” or “killing” Trump.

The number 86 is a slang term that can refer to getting rid of or tossing something out, while Trump is the 47th president of the United States.

"Threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a Tuesday news conference. "Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice."

The indictment charges Comey with two counts of knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of — and to inflict bodily harm on — the president, and knowingly and willfully transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to kill the president.

The indictment states that a "reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances" would interpret the depiction of the shells in the photo "as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to President Trump."

Trump has repeatedly criticized Comey and accused him of having “weaponized” the justice system during investigations involving the president. Comey has denied wrongdoing, and his attorneys previously argued earlier that charges against him were politically motivated.

Blanche said the Justice Department is approaching Comey’s case as it would against any citizen facing similar allegations.

"(Comey's) alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute," he said.

"You are not allowed to threaten the president of the United States," he continued. "That's not my decision. That's Congress' decision in a statute that they passed, that we charge multiple times a year."

'I'm still innocent'

The US Secret Service interviewed Comey after he made the post, and he later removed it after telling investigators that he did not realize the correlation between the numbers and violence.

"I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," Comey said at the time. "It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down."

Comey was first indicted by a federal grand jury last September on charges that he lied to Congress during testimony in September 2020 and obstructed a congressional proceeding. He pleaded not guilty, and the charges were later dismissed by a federal judge after the prosecutor who secured the indictment was found to have been unlawfully appointed.

In seeking to dismiss the first indictment, Comey’s attorneys said Trump had ordered prosecutors to charge him out of "personal spite" and that the prosecution was "selective" and "vindictive."

Meanwhile, Comey on Tuesday pushed back on the indictment and said he is "innocent."

"Well, they're back. This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago, and this won't be the end of it. But nothing has changed with me. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let's go," he said in a video message posted to Substack.

"But it's really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country. This is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be. And the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values. Keep the faith."

*Diyar Guldogan from Washington, DC contributed to this report