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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is taking one other run at its enemies record.
What occurred? On Tuesday, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted for a second time on new federal prices; prosecutors allege {that a} 2025 social media publish Comey made, displaying seashells organized to learn “86 47,” was “a risk to take the lifetime of, and to inflict bodily hurt upon,” Donald Trump.
Trump is the forty seventh president, and “86” is broadly understood to be service business slang for rejecting or eradicating one thing or somebody, relying on the context — however prosecutors, and some Republicans, have as an alternative chosen to interpret it as a name for Trump’s assassination.
On the time, Comey mentioned he was unaware of any violent connotations to the time period and rapidly deleted his publish in response to backlash.
Why Comey? Trump has lengthy needed to punish Comey for his function in investigating ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Particularly, Tuesday’s indictment is a clear retread of an analogous try final 12 months, when the Trump administration briefly — and incompetently — indicted Comey on a distinct set of flimsy prices, which had been subsequently dismissed.
(It’s not even, we should always observe, the one such try in the present day: The administration additionally stepped up its assault on late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s employer, ABC, on Tuesday, after each the president and first girl Melania Trump went after Kimmel for a joke. Kimmel was briefly pressured off the air by the administration final fall.)
What’s the massive image? Earlier this month, Trump fired Legal professional Common Pam Bondi, changing her with Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche, a former member of Trump’s private authorized staff.
Trump’s frustrations with Bondi had been well-known; in September, he posted a message addressed to her, complaining that “Nothing is being executed” towards his enemies. Blanche, who’s up for the everlasting AG job, is clearly making an attempt to treatment that as quick as potential, by no means thoughts how ridiculous the costs.
