Ryan J. Reilly, Monica Alba and Gary Grumbach at NBC:
The Justice Department secured an indictment Tuesday charging former FBI Director James Comey with threatening the life of President Donald Trump by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram.
The two-count indictment, posted Tuesday afternoon, alleges that a reasonable person would interpret the image of the shells, arranged to spell out “86 47,” as “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States."
Justice Department attorneys sought the indictment in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where Comey has a beach house and where he posted the beach scene photo. The Department of Homeland Security previously investigated Comey, who has long been a Trump target, over the May Instagram post, even subjecting him to questioning by the Secret Service.
Comey had deleted the post, saying it never occurred to him that it would be interpreted as being violent. "Eighty-six" is a term commonly used in restaurants when an item is sold out, and it's also informally used to mean "cancel" or "get rid of."
In a subsequent Instagram post in May, Comey said that he assumed the shells he saw on a beach walk were "a political message" and that he "didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," adding that he opposed violence "of any kind."
Comey said in a video posted after his indictment that he was innocent, that he was not afraid and that he still believed in the independent judiciary.
"They're back," he said of the Trump administration. "This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won't be the end of it."
Comey said it was very important to remember that "this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be."
Comey's lawyer had no immediate comment Tuesday. The White House referred all questions about the matter to the Justice Department.
At a news conference Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not offer any evidence that Comey "knowingly and willfully" made a threat, which is a core component of the charges. Pressed by NBC News about how federal prosecutors could prove Comey's intent, Blanche said there had been a "tremendous amount of investigation" and that, in general, the Justice Department proves intent with witnesses and documents and potentially by examining the witness.