NBC's Welker Grills Trump's AG Todd Blanche On Comey Indictment: 'Why Should the Public Believe' It's Not 'Retribution?'
Source: MEDIAite
May 3rd, 2026, 11:07 am
NBC’s Kristen Welker confronted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey — and whether it was an act of retribution against a perceived political enemy of President Donald Trump. In a thorough interrogation on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Welker noted that the burden is on Blanche’s Department of Justice to prove that Comey intended to threaten the president’s life with an image he posted to social media which depicted seashells arranged to read “86 47.”
“How do you prove intent, Mr. Blanche, when Mr. Comey himself said he didn’t understand that some people would look at that and think about violence?” Welker said.
“You prove intent like you always prove intent,” Blanche replied. “You prove intent with witnesses, you prove intent with documents, with materials. So again, this is not just about a single Instagram post. This is about a body of evidence that the grand jury collected over the series of about 11 months. That evidence was presented to the grand jury. And it’s not the government. It’s not the Department of Justice. It’s not Todd Blanche that returns an indictment against James Comey. It’s the grand jury.”
Welker noted the criticism from Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley — who called the indictment “facially unconstitutional, absent some unknown new facts.” “Are there, are you in fact saying that there are facts beyond this Instagram post that clearly establish an intent to threaten the president’s life?” Welker asked. “I’ve said repeatedly this was an investigation that lasted 11 months,” Blanche said. “If the only facts that existed was the posting of the Instagram, obviously that wouldn’t have taken 11 months.
Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/nbcs-welker-grills-trumps-ag-todd-blanche-on-comey-indictment-in-showdown-interview-why-should-the-public-believe-its-not-retribution/
Full headline: NBC’s Welker Grills Trump’s AG Todd Blanche On Comey Indictment in Showdown Interview: ‘Why Should the Public Believe’ It’s Not ‘Retribution?’
Just because a federal grand jury is seated for "11 months" doesn't mean they are there every day for 11 months. They might convene once a month to hear some testimony and/or review new evidence, so that is a bogus assertion. I had a former coworker who was part of a federal grand jury panel a bunch of years ago who mentioned that type of infrequency for the case he was involved with that went on for months. The slam dunk cases are wrapped up pretty quickly.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Also, just because the investigators at the DoJ worked for 11 months, that doesn't mean that they FOUND jack shit in the way of supporting evidence. It is in fact highly likely that it continued because Trump bugged them to keep digging for 11 months 
How do these fucking sycophantic liars even sleep at night? Blanche HAS to know he's completely full of shit. Everyone around Trump is a pathetic, degenerate liar, just like he is 
See related post, but this is a great combo of "But it was a really, really, really long investigation!" and "Don't blame us. We just presented 'the facts.' if it's stupid, it's not our fault!" with the wonderful twist that the grand jury "collected the evidence" !!!
Conjures an image of that group of South Carolinians interviewing Comey's family, friends, relatives and combing the beach with little magnifying glasses looking for shells to fingerprint.
