Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted with threatening to kill President Donald Trump.
The indictment read: “The defendant, James Brien Comey Jr., did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States,” the indictment reads, “in that 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 phrase “86” is commonly used to mean removing or throwing out something or someone – and Trump is the 47th President of the United States.
After deleting the post, Mr Comey said he did not realise that the numbers could be interpreted as a call for violence.
He has been indicted on two charges: threatening to kill Trump and a separate charge relating to the same Instagram post.
The department first brought charges against Comey in September, accusing him of lying to Congress over press leaks.
This is his second indictment from Trump’s Department of Justice, after previous charges of lying to Congress over press leaks were thrown out of court.
Mr Comey, who was a crucial figure in the investigation into Hilary Clinton’s use of a private email server, was fired from his role after the Department of Justice found he mishandled the probe.
The Clinton emails scandal was a major issue in the 2016 presidential election between Ms Clinton and Mr Trump.
Mr Comey became a feature of the investigation into Trump’s campaign’s ties to Russia led by Robert Mueller, when a memo he had written after a meeting with Trump was leaked to the press.
The memo detailed Trump’s alleged attempt to have an investigation into national security advisor Michael Flynn stopped, and was probed by Mueller as potential obstruction of justice.
