Ted Lieu slams James Comey's indictment, says DOJ will 'lose again'

The Department of Justice on Tuesday secured an indictment against Former FBI Director James Comey, charging him with threatening the life of President Donald Trump by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram. In the now-deleted image shared last year, Comey captured seashells arranged to spell "86 47," which allegedly meant "get rid of" the "47th President". Reacting to the department's indictment, U.S. Representative Ted Lieu said it was "ridiculous" and argued that the DOJ will lose in court over its interpretation of the image and that Comey was protected under the First Amendment. 

The two-count indictment alleges that the image would be interpreted by a reasonable person as "a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States." While the accusation had come almost immediately after Comey had shared the image, Blanche, a former personal attorney of Trump, who is now the Acting Attorney General, moved quickly to act on the matter. "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," he said at a press conference on Tuesday. "Threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime. Threatening the life of the President of the United States will never be tolerated," he added.

In an interview with KTLA5, the hosts asked Congressman Lieu for his thoughts on Blanche's comments and the indictment. "Todd Blanche is lying. He should lose his law license for this ridiculous indictment," Lieu said. He further explained that the slang term '86', according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, was "to 'throw out or to get rid of something'". "'I think we should throw Donald Trump out' or 'I think we should get rid of Donald Trump,' that is actually protected by the First Amendment," Lieu argued.

Lieu further added that the DOJ is going to lose the case in court and that Todd Blanche should be "ashamed of himself" for bringing this case. "I know it’s selective prosecution because numerous people have used the slang term '86' applied to President Biden, and Todd Blanche did not indict any of them," the Congressman added. He claimed that there was no way that a jury would convict Comey for this "ridiculous case."

Last year, after facing backlash, Comey deleted the post saying he never interpreted the image as violent. In a subsequent post, Comey said he assumed the shells were a political message, but he didn't realize people would associate those numbers with violence. At the time, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Comey would be investigated, and the FBI director sat for an hours-long interview with Secret Service agents in Washington, DC. After his indictment, Comey posted a video on his Substack claiming that he was innocent, and that he was not afraid of the indictment, expressing confidence in the independent federal judiciary.   

"They're back," he said. "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. He then urged people to remember that  "this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be."