The Comey Indictment Fails to Charge a ‘True Threat’

On the Sunday news shows last week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche attempted the impossible: an explanation, besides politicized prosecution, for why the Trump Justice Department has charged only his boss’s nemesis, James Comey, with a criminally actionable threat for using the term “86” in connection with a president. Last year, Comey posted on Instagram a photograph of seashells on a North Carolina beach, arrayed to say, “86 47.”

Nobody doubts that “47” refers to Trump, the 47th president of these United States. The question is what “86” means.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Donald Trump

Free Speech

Department of Justice

Trump Administration

James Comey

On the Sunday news shows last week, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche attempted the impossible: an explanation, besides politicized prosecution, for why the Trump Justice Department has charged only his boss’s nemesis, James Comey, with a criminally actionable threat for using the term “86” in connection with a president. Last year, Comey posted on Instagram a photograph of seashells on a North Carolina beach, arrayed to say, “86 47.”

Nobody doubts that “47” refers to Trump, the 47th president of these United States. The question is what “86” means.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.