A former White House attorney during President Donald Trump’s previous term in office slammed the Justice Department’s latest attempt to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey — this time over his “86 47” seashell photo.
“It’s specious. It’ll be thrown out. It’s classic revenge,” Ty Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday evening. “It’s a document that really isn’t worth anything other than the PR that the president’s trying to get to intimidate Comey and others who might speak out against him. It’s a vindictive prosecution.”
Comey last spring posted an image on social media showing a bunch of seashells on a beach arranged to say “86 47,” which some people ― apparently including Trump ― read as a threat against the president.
“It’ll be dismissed,” he said, adding that no “reasonable” person would look at the seashell photo and consider it a threat to the president.
He also called it “absurd” and pointed out that “86 47” is widely available on T-shirts and other merch, worn by people who simply want Trump out of office and not as a death threat.
“I don’t think all those people are going to be prosecuted,” he said.
Cobb also noted that “86” started as rhyming slang for “nix.”
“You could replace ‘86’ with ‘impeach the president’ and it would have no more violent effect than ‘86’ does,” he pointed out.
Trump has frequently called for the prosecution of his critics, and has specifically demanded legal action against Comey. The Justice Department brought a separate case against him last year, but a judge dismissed it.
Comey has insisted he is innocent.
See more of Cobb’s conversation with Burnett below:
