President Trump specifically called for the prosecution of Comey. A judge dropped the earlier charges in November.
Charges brought against James Comey and Letitia James are dismissed
Former FBI Director James Comey has responded after a judge ordered the Justice Department to drop charges against him.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted for the second time after a judge dismissed an earlier indictment in November, according to media reports.
The Justice Department, Mr. Comey, and the lawyers who previously represented Mr. Comey did not respond to requests for comment.
CNN and the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, that the new charges relate to Comey’s social media posts.
The post featured an image of a seashell with “8647” written on it. Some supporters of President Donald Trump interpreted the post as a threat because “86” is a slang term meaning “to throw away” or “to eliminate,” according to Merriam-Webster, and Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
Comey later deleted the post and said in a new post that he “didn’t realize that some people were associating these numbers with violence” and that he deleted the post because he opposed “violence of any kind.”
Comey had previously been indicted by the Trump administration on charges of lying to Congress, but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor who prosecuted him was illegally appointed. The Department of Justice appealed this decision.
Both charges come after President Trump specifically called for criminal charges against Comey in September. Comey served as FBI director during the first Trump administration until Trump fired him in 2017.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
