U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle reacts as acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announces a second indictment of former FBI Director James Comey during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 28, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A legal expert said during a new interview on CNN that he is shocked that the Trump administration returned another indictment against former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.
Ryan Goodman, editor in chief of Just Security, told CNN's Erin Burnett on her show, "OutFront," that "it was a shock" that a grand jury returned the three-page indictment against Comey for charges of threatening the president and felony interstate communication violations. He added that there are possible repercussions down the line for lawyers working on the case.
"There's no way it can survive, and it's even a shock that it survived a grand jury," Goodman said.
Goodman added that the charges in the indictment don't seem to match what the Supreme Court has laid out in previous cases.
The indictment alleges Comey intentionally threatened to kill the president when he posted a picture on his Instagram of seashells arranged in the numbers "86 47," which some conservatives interpreted as code for "kill Trump." Goodman noted that the Supreme Court requires plaintiffs to prove an objective belief that the message was intended as a threat.
If the Trump DOJ lawyers can't do that, then Goodman noted that the indictment presents a "real threat" to the personnel involved.
"I think if you're the defense counsel, James Comey, you don't want to just say, 'Let's go to trial because you're not going to be convicted.' You might want to do all sorts of motions to have it dismissed using Supreme Court precedent, et cetera, and then, for the disbarment, which I do think is a real threat to Justice Department people who are involved in this."