“Maybe it’ll go away,” James Comey said last May of an investigation into his Instagram post showing seashells arranged on a beach in the shape of the numbers “8647.”
On Tuesday, Comey, the former FBI director, was indicted on two felony counts alleging he "knowingly and willingly" made "a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States."
The charges come five months after a judge threw out an indictment alleging Comey lied to Congress and as President Donald Trump has made clear his frustration that the Justice Department has failed to prosecute his perceived political enemies. That unfulfilled desire for retribution was among the reasons Trump fired Pam Bondi as his attorney general less than a month ago.
Bondi’s replacement, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, announced the indictment by framing it as the result of an 11-month investigation that demonstrates that no one is above the law.
“While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” Blanche said.
But multiple legal experts lambasted the indictment in interviews. One of them called it an "embarrassment to the American criminal justice system." Others said it shows the lengths to which the current Justice Department will go to placate Trump's demands to prosecute his perceived political enemies.
