"8647" case against Comey deader than a Texas salad bar

THE PROSECUTION OF JAMES COMEY is dead, to begin with. There is no doubt 
whatever about that. It is as dead as a doornail.

The manner of its death has yet to be determined, to be sure. But there is no 
doubt that it is dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing terrifying 
can come of the story I am going to relate.

To be sure, its death is, in some ways, disappointing. Who does not yearn for a 
full-blown public trial where the government’s proof is exposed for the bag of 
vacuous nonsense that it is? The spectacle would sell popcorn by the 
bucketful—and with good reason. Consider just a couple of the showstoppers that 
we are going to miss (summarized from Comey’s motion to dismiss and motion to 
suppress):

Comey was, infamously, indicted for posting a picture of some seashells that 
formed the phrase “86 47.” The government’s charge claims that the use of the 
number “86” was a true threat against President Trump—an incitement to violence 
and a reference to assassination or murder.

Leaving aside First Amendment issues, the government’s prosecution of Comey 
faces an extremely difficult factual problem: proving that to “86” someone or 
something actually means to kill or destroy it, and that this destructive 
meaning is what Comey intended to convey. The question is fraught because the 
origin of the phrase, in the 1930s, refers to the much more benign idea of 
asking someone to leave, or reporting that an item is out of stock.

To bolster the argument, the prosecutors went to the trouble of contacting 
well-known mafioso Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. But he said that the mob 
would never use “86” to mean to kill someone because it was “too obvious.”

The Bull went on to suggest that DOJ contact John Gleeson, one of the most 
famous, longtime mafia prosecutors in recent history. DOJ didn’t do so, but 
Comey’s team did— and Gleeson told them that “the claim that ‘86’ is mafia 
jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous.”

Or consider the problem known today as “Person-1.” Person-1 (who knew Comey’s 
wife, Patrice) has said that he is convinced that Comey knew the meaning of the 
“86” and intended it in its more violent meaning. But Person-1’s initial 
reaction was that “86” had the food-service meaning of being out of stock. Only 
after listening to an episode of Rudy Giuliani’s podcast did he come to believe 
that Comey (who worked on mafia prosecutions) must have known that “86” was code 
for murder.

Imagine how amusing, entertaining, and painful a live cross-examination of 
Person-1 would be:

   Defense counsel: Did you talk with Mr. Comey?

   Person-1: No I did not.

   Defense counsel: Then how do you know he meant the malicious meaning of “86”?

   Person-1: He must have known it from his mafia prosecution days.

   Defense counsel: Well, then would it change your mind if you knew that the
   foremost mafia prosecutor in America said that the mafia would never use “86”
   to mean “kill”?

   Person-1: [Blank stare; stuttering; cold sweats.]

It is a shame that we will be deprived of this sort of magical public moment. 
But whether on this basis or because the indictment is deemed a vindictive 
prosecution, we are never going to see this show. The Comey prosecution is 
dead—its death sentence just hasn’t been written yet.

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-james-comey-prosecution-is-dead-86-47-rule-of-law-trump-blanche-justice-department?utm_source=publication-search

Everything Trumpstein does is fucked up.