The indictment itself isn’t the most peculiar aspect of the second James Comey indictment. It’s how the timeline ceases to feel haphazard once it is laid out flat. In May of last year, a man strolls along a beach in North Carolina. He observes seashells arranged like numbers. He snaps a photo, uploads it, and removes it a few hours later when people begin to interpret it as something darker than he had intended. Eleven months go by. Then, almost without warning, two counts are returned by a federal grand jury.
Sitting on a picture of seashells for eleven months is a long time.
Depending on your point of view, Comey’s account of the incident has always sounded either completely plausible or suspiciously casual. He was strolling with his spouse. She had experience working in eateries. She was aware that “86” is a term used in the kitchen to indicate that something is off the menu or that someone has left. They considered the formation to be clever. He shared it along with a comment about a cool arrangement of shells he saw while strolling along the beach. When the backlash started, he wrote that he was unaware that some people connected those figures to violence, and the post was taken down. That was meant to be the end of it. It wasn’t.
Naturally, the picture didn’t change. It was the structure where prosecutors are housed. Former Trump personal attorney Todd Blanche took Pam Bondi’s place as acting attorney general after the president reportedly became frustrated that his opponents’ cases kept failing. The Comey indictment appeared during what appears to be a trial period. There’s a feeling that Blanche is attempting to prove something, and that the proof is more important than whether the case is ever decided by a jury.
Legal experts appear to concur that the prosecution has an intentional problem. The government must demonstrate that Comey intended the post to be a threat or was at least careless about how it would be interpreted in accordance with recent Supreme Court precedent. The indictment’s use of the outdated “reasonable recipient” language makes it appear as though it was written before the law changed. When asked about the government’s actual evidence of intent during the press conference, Blanche responded in a way that prosecutors would prefer to remain silent. witnesses. records. When appropriate, the defendant himself.
Additionally, the venue has an almost too-neat quality. The shells were discovered in Comey’s beach house in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Due to the improper appointment of the prosecutor who brought the first indictment on unrelated charges, it was dismissed. Bondi appoints a U.S. attorney to handle this case, and a judge nominated by George W. Bush is now tasked with hearing it. No one can really predict whether that combination will result in a different outcome just yet.
The way the second case contrasts with the first is difficult to overlook. same defendant. Trump has always harbored the same general grievance, which dates back to the Russia investigation. The same destination but a different statute and theory. This month, Comey revealed to Nicolle Wallace that even he experienced the tendency toward numbness, the fleeting thought of “oh, the second time, whatever.” It’s a brief confession, and it’s arguably the most candid statement in the entire episode.
As it develops, the concern isn’t so much about whether or not the accusations stand up. It concerns what happens to a prosecution’s meaning when the prosecution turns into the message. In that way, the seashells were never the main attraction. They were exactly what the beach had to offer.