Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey leaves the Rayburn House Office Building after testifying on Capitol Hill Dec. 7, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
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The Justice Department has secured an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, according to a source familiar with the matter. This is the second time the Trump DOJ has indicted Comey, a fierce critic and outspoken opponent of President Trump.
The person spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The person confirmed that a grand jury has handed up an indictment against Comey, but the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear.
The case revolves around a photo the former FBI director posted online last year of seashells on a beach arranged to say “8647” — 86 being old slang to mean “get rid of,” and 47 seen by some as a reference to Trump, who is the 47th (and 45th) president.
The post prompted an uproar among some Republicans, with Donald Trump Jr. accusing Comey of “calling for my dad to be murdered.” Administration officials last May said they would investigate. Comey has said he didn’t realize some people associate the numbers with violence and took the post down; he said at the time that he assumed the shells were a “political message,” not a violent one. It’s unclear who created the shell formation.
This indictment is seen as the latest move by the Justice Department to use its vast powers to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies.
Comey has been an outspoken critic of Trump since he led the FBI during the president’s first term. Trump fired Comey in 2017, four years into his ten-year term, as he was overseeing an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
A federal judge in November dismissed an earlier DOJ attempt to indict James Comey as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Justice Department charged Comey with making false statements and obstructing justice in connection with his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found that the acting U.S. attorney who secured the indictments, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
The cases were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the Justice Department had the ability to bring them again.
