'You have got to be kidding': New Comey indictment leaves law experts in disbelief
Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted for a second time on Monday — and this time, it's unrelated to the previous, widely-criticized charge alleging that he lied to the Senate during testimony about the Russia investigation.
Instead, reported Fox News' Bill Melugin, the new indictment is "in relation to his '8647' seashell post on Instagram last year" — a post that at the time, a number of MAGA commentators claimed was a threat of or call for violence against President Donald Trump, the 47th president, even though the phrase "to 86 someone" can have a broad variety of meanings.
Legal and political observers on social media were quick to weigh in, broadly agreeing this indictment was a wild and unconstitutional abuse of power and would swiftly fall apart.
"If the charges are over alleged threats Comey made by posting '8647,' that indictment is not long for this world," wrote Lawfare's Anna Bower. "As Todd Blanche is well aware, 8647 is not even close to being a true threat. Not to mention that Comey said he didn’t know the phrase was associated with violence!"
"You have got to be kidding me," wrote The Bulwark's Sam Stein.
"These guys would indict an actual ham sandwich if the ham said something rude about DJT," wrote Wall Street Journal columnist Kyle Smith.
"This is so funny/stupid/corrupt/malicious that we have no choice but to do The Next Level pod live," wrote former GOP operative Tim Miller.
"Kash Patel is about to arrest any bouncer who has ever banned him from a bar under this logic lmao," wrote the Right Wing Cope account.
"The idea that '86 47' is not protected free speech is so insulting that a copy of the First Amendment in the National Archives spontaneously combusted upon the filing of this indictment," wrote American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
"The Comey indictment isn’t an 'uphill battle' for DOJ. It isn’t 'questionable.' It isn’t debatable," wrote reporter Radley Balko. "It’s an insane abuse of power, and it isn’t remotely close."
"Disbar these lawyers," wrote Georgia law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.
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