Exclusive: Former FBI Director James Comey indicted over alleged ‘threat’ against Trump

(CNN) — Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells that officials said threatened President Donald Trump, marking the administration’s second attempt to prosecute one of his largest political opponents, three sources first told CNN.

The indictment was brought in the Eastern District of North Carolina. An arrest warrant was issued for Comey by a court clerk.

Comey faces charges of making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, according to court documents.

The charges come with a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

“He publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site Instagram which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out ‘86 47’, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States,” the indictment says.

Trump has long pressed for his political adversaries to face charges, including the former FBI director he sees as a key leader in the perceived effort to “weaponize” justice system against him.

Last May, Comey posted a photo on social media of shells on a beach writing out the numbers “86 47,” which critics said referred to taking out or killing Trump.

When used as slang, the number 86 can refer to getting rid of or tossing something out. Trump is currently the 47th president. Comey posted the photo of the shells, writing in the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

In a press conference Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche talked about the case as an example of the Justice Department’s effort to prosecute people who make threats against the president.

Immediately following the presser, Blanche has showed up at the White House.

“Over the past year, this department has charged dozens of cases involving threats against all sorts of individuals,” Blanche said. “We take these seriously. Every single one of them.”

When asked by CNN’s Evan Perez why the Justice Department requested an arrest warrant in this case, Blanche pointed to the grand jury in North Carolina.

“The Department of Justice does not issue arrest warrants, grand juries do,” he said. “And so the grand jury returned an indictment and arrest warrant, I expect that there will be communication with Mr. Comey’s counsel, and we’ll go from there. This case will proceed like hundreds of others do every year.”

The court docket includes a request for an arrest warrant submitted with Justice Department letterhead, with no signature from the grand jury.

Almost immediately following his post, Republicans and administration officials went full bore in their criticism of Comey at the time, with then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing Comey would be investigated by the Secret Service over what she said was a call “for the assassination” of Trump.

The Secret Service brought Comey in for an hours-long interview with agents in Washington, DC, an uncommon step by the agency over a non-specific threat. Comey told investigators he saw the shells on a beach in North Carolina.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News following Comey’s post that the former director should be “put behind bars for this” and that she was “very concerned” for Trump’s life.

Comey removed the post the same day, writing on social media that he assumed the shells represented “a political message” but “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,” he wrote.

Legal and security experts have told CNN such a case against Comey may be fruitless, especially given the country’s free speech protections.

A second indictment

The case against Comey marks a newly reinvigorated effort by Trump’s Justice Department to convict the former director, who became a staunch critic of the president following his firing by Trump in 2017 over the Russia-meddling investigation.

In September of last year, the Justice Department first brought charges against Comey, accusing him of lying to Congress over leaks to the press. The case was dismissed late last year by a federal judge who found that the interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia had been improperly appointed, having skirted approval from the Senate.

Comey’s attorneys declined to comment for this story.

The former director fell out of favor with Trump before he was first elected president, as Comey’s agency investigated the Trump campaign and ties to Russia. Comey was fired in the months after the inauguration.

Since his firing, Comey has become an ardent critic of Trump and key enemy of Republicans in the White House and Capitol Hill.

Maurene Comey lawsuit continues

Earlier Tuesday, a judge allowed a lawsuit brought by Comey’s daughter Maurene, a former high-profile New York federal prosecutor challenging her firing from the Justice Department, to move forward in federal court.

Maurene Comey alleges she was fired as retribution because she is the daughter of the former FBI director. She is seeking back pay and to have her legal fees paid.

She worked on some of the most prominent prosecutions by the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, including the prosecution of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez.

On July 16, two weeks after a jury convicted Combs of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, Maurene Comey received an email from Washington informing her she was fired “pursuant to Article II” of the US Constitution.

‘Weaponization’ efforts

Comey’s indictment comes as Blanche has picked up the pace in bringing cases that the president has publicly jockeyed for.

In his first week in office, Blanche oversaw the release of the Weaponization Working Group’s first report — one that alleged the Biden Justice Department was biased in how it went after abortion protesters. The department fired four prosecutors who worked on the cases.

He has made changes to the prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan – one of the most important cases to the president.

And on Tuesday, the Justice Department has been taking steps that are likely to please Trump.

The DOJ is planning to subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ bodyguards, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Willis prosecuted Trump and many others over their efforts to change the results of the 2020 election.

The Justice Department also charged a former senior official at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with concealing records during the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans have long gone after officials who led the pandemic response over failures, real and perceived, and before leaving office, President Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci – the biggest target of all.

The story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

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