Line in the sand: Why Trump is drawing flak for the James Comey indictment over seashells

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The second James Comey indictment is not just absurd, it’s deeply troubling.

Trying to prosecute a guy for threatening the president’s life by posting a picture of seashells?

After a previous, much broader indictment against the fired FBI director despised by President Donald Trump was thrown out of court?

But don’t take my word for it:

JAMES COMEY INDICTED FOR ALLEGED THREATS AGAINST TRUMP: DOJ

ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “Even Trump’s allies are privately calling it ‘embarrassing,’ or as one very prominent former Trump DOJ official told me last night, ‘depressing.’”

National Review’s Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor: “This farce, then, is nothing more than a continuation of Trump’s lawfare campaign against a political enemy. It is inconceivable that Comey could be convicted of a crime in these circumstances, but the president’s minions are putting him through the anxiety, expense, and stigma of the judicial process.”

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox: “I must be in a parallel universe to be talking about the shell art of James Comey…Just showing the picture’s going to be a weak case in terms of a threat.”

“It’ll be thrown out. It’s classic revenge,” Ty Cobb, a Trump White House lawyer in the first term, told CNN.

LEGAL EXPERTS WARN COMEY ‘86 47’ INDICTMENT FACES FIRST AMENDMENT HURDLES

The seashell collection, which Comey said he found on a North Carolina beach, said 86 47. In restaurant parlance, 86 means to get rid of a customer or dish, not kill them. And the other numbers refer to the 47th president. It was spectacularly bad judgment for Comey to post the photo on his Instagram account.

But after an uproar, Comey deleted the posting and said he in no way meant to suggest political violence.

“I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go,” Comey said after the new charges were filed.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaking at a news conference indoors

It’s no secret at this point that the Justice Department has become an aggressive player in Trump’s retribution campaign. One reason he fired Pam Bondi as attorney general is that he was unhappy with the pace of the probes.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche denied yesterday that the president had ordered him to bring the indictment. “Anybody who tries to put forward some narrative that this is just about seashells or something to the contrary is missing the point,” he told CBS. “You cannot threaten the president of the United States.”

But Trump didn’t have to make a secret phone call to demand the indictment. He talks openly about those he views as enemies, such as Letitia James. He said he was glad when ex-special prosecutor Bob Mueller died.

In the past, Trump has referred to Comey as “scum,” “slimeball” and a “lying scumbag.”

Trump told reporters yesterday that 86 is “a mob term for kill them, you know? You ever see the movies? “‘86 ‘em,’ the mobster says to one of his wonderful associates.”

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on whether he felt his life was in danger, Trump said “probably.”

“The people like Comey have created tremendous danger, I think, for politicians and others. You know, Comey is a dirty cop, he’s a very dirty cop…He’s a crooked man.”

Other presidents might have declined comment on what is now an ongoing criminal prosecution, but that’s not Donald Trump.

FORMER FBI AGENT SAYS COMEY CHARGES HINGE ON INTENT EVIDENCE AND JURY INTERPRETATION

The first indictment, last September, came after Secret Service agents tracked down the former FBI chief. It included charges of leaking and lying to Congress, but Tuesday’s stripped-down version deals only with the shell photo.

Trump defenders say he was persecuted during his first term with four criminal cases. So this, in their view, is proper payback.

But during the campaign I lost track of how many times Trump told me “the best retribution will be success.”

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Instead, he’s gone after political opponents, law firms, news organizations and others with a vengeance.

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These efforts have so far fallen short in court. The Comey indictment is such a stretch that even most conservative legal commentators aren’t defending it.

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