WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)— Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted for threatening the life of Donald Trump, officials said Tuesday, five months after a previous case against the outspoken critic of the US president was thrown out.

The New York Times said the indictment stems from a social media post by the 65-year-old Comey but did not specify the exact charge.

Comey made a now-deleted post on Instagram last year that showed the numbers “86 47” spelled out in sea shells.

Trump alleged in an interview with Fox News at the time that “86” was slang for kill and the “47” was a reference to his being the 47th president.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said. “That meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear.”

Comey said on Instagram that he posted “a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.”

“I didn’t realize 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,” he said.

Comey was charged in September with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding in what was widely seen as retribution by the Republican president against a political opponent.

A federal judge threw out the case in November on the grounds that the US attorney handpicked by Trump who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed.

The judge threw out a separate case at the same time that was brought against another Trump foe, New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The Comey and James indictments came after the interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert, stepped down after reportedly telling Justice Department leaders there was insufficient evidence to charge them.

Another Trump critic, his former national security advisor John Bolton, has been indicted for allegedly transmitting and retaining classified information.

– ‘His right’ –

Comey was appointed to head the FBI by president Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017 amid a probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.

The September charges against Comey came just days after Trump publicly urged then attorney general Pam Bondi to take action against the former FBI director and others — a stunning departure from the principle that the Justice Department must be free from White House pressure.

Bondi was fired this month, reportedly in part because of her failure to secure indictments of Trump’s political opponents.

Since taking office, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.

Todd Blanche, who was named acting attorney general after Bondi’s firing, has defended the investigations into Trump opponents.

“It is true that some of them involve men, women and entities that the president, in the past, has had issues with and believes should be investigated,” Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, said. “That is his right, and indeed, it is his duty to do that.”

Comey’s indictment came on the same day as a judge ruled that his daughter, Maurene Comey, can proceed with a lawsuit alleging that her firing as a federal prosecutor last year was politically motivated.