By Luis De Jesus
Former FBI Director James Comey was accused again this Tuesday in the United States as part of an investigation into a post he made on social media that authorities said could be interpreted as a threat against President Donald Trump. This was stated by a person familiar with the case cited by The Linked Press.
It is about of the second criminal case against Comey in a matter of months and is plotted in the midst of the efforts of the Department of Justice, under the current administration, to advance cases against figures considered opponents of the Republican president.
The accusation is related to an image posted by Comey in May of last year on Instagram, in which seashells appeared arranged in the sequence “86 47”.
The former official then explained that He interpreted the numbers as a political message and not as an incitement to violence. However, he deleted the publication shortly after, stating that he was unaware that some people associated that combination with violent calls.
After the image was released, the Secret Service questioned Comey after Trump administration officials assured that The message implied a reference to the assassination of the president, who currently occupies position number 47.
Trump stated in an interview with Fox Recordsdata that Comey knew “exactly what that meant.”
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, cited by AP, The number “86” is slang that can mean “discard” or “get rid of,” and in recent uses it has also been linked with the meaning of “kill”, although the latter is not widely used.
This new process occurs months after a previous accusation against Comey was dismissed, in which he was accused of lying and obstructing Congress for his testimony in 2020 about leaking information to a journalist.
A judge overturned that case, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the charge had been illegally appointed.
The relationship between Comey and Trump has been contentious since 2017, when the then-president dismissed him amid an FBI investigation into possible links between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.
That investigation, later led by special counsel Robert Mueller, concluded that Russia interfered in the elections, but did not find sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy with Trump’s team.
The context of this new accusation also includes other processes promoted by the Department of Justice. The current acting fashionable prosecutor, Todd Blanche, who was Trump’s personal lawyer, has promoted cases with political implications, such as an investigation against the Southern Poverty Legislation Center for alleged fraud, accusations that the organization has rejected.
In addition, the authorities maintain a criminal investigation against the former director of the CIA John Brennan another figure linked to investigations into Russian interference in 2016.
Keep reading:
• Donald Trump claimed that former FBI director “knew exactly” the meaning of 86 47
• Former DOJ employees assure that case against James Comey is political persecution
• US investigates alleged threat against Trump by former FBI chief