A federal choose on Tuesday granted former FBI Director James Comey’s request to delay his criminal trial for allegedly threatening to kill President Donald Trump by posting a photograph of seashells.
U.S. District Decide Louise Wooden Flanagan scheduled the trial to start on Oct. 21.
The previous FBI director’s arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30.
Prosecutors didn’t object to the request to delay the proceedings.
Comey was charged with threatening to kill Trump by posting a photo on Instagram of seashells on a seaside organized within the numbers “86 47.” Citing the slang that means of “86” as to “nix” or “get rid” of one thing, allies of the president allege that the submit was a veiled menace towards Trump, who’s the forty seventh president.
Following backlash over the submit, Comey eliminated the picture from Instagram and stated he was unaware that the submit might be related to violence.
Critics of Trump say the indictment is one other effort by the administration to punish the president’s perceived enemies after a choose final yr threw out an indictment towards Comey on unrelated costs.
Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill Washington, Dec. 17, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
“Effectively, they’re again. This time a few image of seashells on a North Carolina Seashore a yr in the past,” Comey stated in a video posted on-line after the seashell indictment was unsealed. “And this would possibly not be the top of it, however nothing has modified with me. I am nonetheless harmless, I am nonetheless not afraid, and I nonetheless consider within the unbiased federal judiciary, so let’s go.”
At a press convention asserting the costs final month, performing Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche argued that Comey’s submit crossed the road between First Modification-protected speech and speech that warrants prosecution.
“It isn’t a really troublesome line to take a look at, and it isn’t, in my thoughts, a troublesome line for one to cross over, by hook or by crook,” Blanche stated. “We can not, you aren’t allowed to threaten the President of the USA of America. That is not my determination. That is Congress’s determination, and a statute that they handed that we cost a number of instances a yr.”
