Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has been forced to defend his indictment of ex-FBI director James Comey after a it was pointed out that a MAGA influencer had posted an equivalent “threat” against Joe Biden.
The Department of Justice announced Tuesday it was pursuing Comey over an image he uploaded to Instagram last May of seashells on a beach spelling out the figures “8647.”
The seemingly-innocuous shot amounted to “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president of the United States,” the DOJ alleged.
It suggested that “86” could be interpreted as a reference to the slang phrase meaning to nix or remove while the “47” might refer to President Donald Trump, the 47th commander-in-chief.
Taken together, the message may be read as “code” calling for political violence against Trump, an accusation Comey has repeatedly denied. He took the picture down last year as soon as it proved controversial.
Interviewed by Major Garrett on CBS Mornings Wednesday, Blanche was confronted over his case against Comey, with the reporter noting that conservative pundit Jack Posobiec had posted “8646” four years ago, seemingly levelling an equivalent threat against Trump’s predecessor, Biden being the 46th president.
“Let’s do a compare and contrast, Mr Blanche,” Garrett said. “In 2022, someone well known in right-wing circles, Jack Posobiec, posted on X, ‘8646.’
“He did not take it down. Mr Comey has done both of those things. The Biden Justice Department never prosecuted him.
“By the standard of that grand jury, Jack Posobiec should face charges as well. Will the Justice Department pursue that case, because they sound very similar?”
Blanche answered without addressing the Posobiec parallel directly.
“That’s just completely not true,” he said. “That’s not how a grand jury does its work. They don’t just look at a single image and then say, ‘OK, yes, we’ll indict,’ or ‘OK, no, we won’t indict.’
“They do an investigation. This conduct took place in May of last year, May 15. It has been almost a year. I assure you, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have not been sitting around doing nothing.
“They have been investigating. I have no idea whether there was an investigation into the other times that that post has been made and whether that investigation yielded different results.
“This investigation that we undertook resulted in a two-count indictment. So you cannot compare, ‘Well, what happened last time?’ What happened this time, every investigation is different. You know that. The American people know that.
“A lot of factors going into whether someone should or should not be charged. The mere fact there’s a similar photo posted or similar statement made. That’s true every day.
“There’s comments made about President Trump, threats made against President Trump. Every one of those are not indicted. It depends on the facts of every case.”
Comey himself reacted to the indictment with derision Tuesday, saying in a video posted on Substack: “Well, they’re back. This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach over a year ago, and this won’t be the end of it.
“But nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go.”
Comey was also targeted by the DOJ last year, when the then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, accused him of lying to Congress. He denied the charges before the case was tossed without reaching trial when Halligan was ruled to have overstayed her term in office.
Legal experts covering the new case against Comey Tuesday were quick to disparage it.
Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb called it “specious” and a “vindictive prosecution,” ex-deputy assistant AG Tom Dupree called it “skeletal,” and even conservative constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley labelled it “weak” on Fox News. All expected it to prove a dead end.
Comey’s former deputy at the FBI, Andrew McCabe, told CNN: “It boggles my mind that they’re still able to find people inside the department and the FBI... who would actually spend their time working on this thing.
“If there were even a legitimate argument that that statement was a threat, do you actually think the Secret Service, after having interviewed him the day after the threat was allegedly made, would have allowed Jim Comey to live his life walking around free, doing nothing for the last year?... It’s preposterous. This whole thing is an absolute fraud.”
The Independent has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
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