Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed concerns that former FBI Director James Comey is being targeted over a social media post.
Leftists are crying “fascism” again, this time accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of chilling free speech by targeting his political enemies over their social media postings. Specifically, the recent arrest of Comey for charges that many say stem from his infamous “8647” Instagram post. Speaking to NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, Blanche revealed that the case against the former director is based on much more than a picture of seashells.
Watch:
(Video Credit: NBC News)
“How does that image of seashells amount to a serious threat against the president’s life?” host Kristen Welker asked.
“Every case requires an investigation,” Blanche explained. “What you just showed is one part of the investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post. Rest assured that the career assistant United States attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, and the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case didn’t just look at this Instagram post and walk away. That’s why you saw an indictment last week, notwithstanding the fact that it was last May the post was made. I’m not permitted to get into the details on what the grand jury heard and found, as you know, but rest assured, it’s not an Instagram post that leads to someone being indicted.”
“Part of what the government would have to prove is intent. James Comey deleted the post the same day, and he wrote ‘I didn’t realize that some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down.’ How do you prove intent when Mr. Comey himself said he didn’t understand that some people would look at that and think about violence?” the host pressed.
“You prove intent like you always prove intent. You prove intent with witnesses, you prove intent with documents, with materials, so, again, this is not just about a single Instagram post; this is about a body of evidence that the grand jury collected over a series of about 11 months. That evidence was presented to the grand jury, and it’s not the government, not the Department of Justice, not Todd Blanche that returned an indictment against James Comey. It’s a grand jury, part of the judicial process. And this process has to be allowed to play out in the courts. It’s not fair to Mr. Comey, it’s certainly not fair to the prosecutors for us to be airing your view or my view of this indictment; it’s something that will [be] presented in court at the time set by the judge,” Blanche responded.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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