Former FBI Director James Comey Charged with Threatening to Kill President Trump

Former FBI Director James Comey has been charged with threatening to kill US President Donald Trump, an indictment that stems from an image he briefly shared on Instagram last year. Comey has insisted he did not know what the numbers on the image meant, but Trump and other administration officials have said the post was a threat against the 47th president. "Eighty-six" is a slang term used to mean "eject" or "remove." A federal judge dismissed that case two months later, saying that the interim federal prosecutor who brought the charges was improperly appointed. "While this case is unique, and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute," acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday. "I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence," he added. "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." President Donald Trump, who has long criticised Comey, said of the post that "a child knows what that meant". Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury in late September on charges that he lied to Congress during testimony in September 2020 and obstructed a congressional proceeding. The indictment came days after Trump called on the country's top law enforcement official to more aggressively investigate his political adversaries, including Comey. Comey pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance in October before the case was dismissed in November. Halligan, the prosecutor in eastern Virginia who secured the indictments, was not authorised to present the charges to the grand jury, the judge said. Halligan is a former White House aide who had never prosecuted a case before.