Ex-FBI director James Comey indicted again, this time over anti-Trump post

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted again on Tuesday, this time in an investigation over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against US President Donald Trump.

The criminal case is the second in a matter of months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department’s relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president.

The seashells photo was posted nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured as acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, aims to prove to the president that he is the right person to hold the job permanently.

The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case against the ex-FBI director months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could open the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target Comey, who had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether the Republican president’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term, and they have openly feuded ever since.

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and wilfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon” Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.