Ex-FBI Director James Comey indicted over social media post

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Ex-FBI Director James Comey faces indictment again, over an online post of seashells arranged in the numbers '86 47' that US Attorney General Todd Blanche is calling a "threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States." 

The criminal case is the second in a matter of months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department's effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president. 

Comey oversaw the the early months of an investigation into whether the Republican president's 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year's election. He was fired by Trump months into the president's first term and the two have openly feuded ever since.

The Instagram post from last May is a photo of seashells Comey saw on a walk. Comey has said he assumed the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. 

Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: "I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence" and "I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down."

The case was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the state where Comey found the seashells.

Comey's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Tuesday, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately comment.