Now that Donald Trump has caused James Comey to be prosecuted for "criminally viewing seashells," even the president's allies see the case as 'embarrassing'

George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl, (Good Morning America)

How bad is the criminal "seashells" case Donald Trump caused to be brought against former FBI director James Comey? Trump's fellow Republicans are expressing embarrassment about it -- at least when they are out of the president's hearing range. That's from an article at HuffPost under the headline "Even Trump's Allies Reportedly think The Comey Indictment Is Silly: 'Embarrassing"; ABC's Jonathan Karl said sources have called it the "flimsiest" federal indictment they have ever seen." Elyse Wanshel writes:

Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl reported on “Good Morning America” (GMA) Wednesday that even President Donald Trump’s allies think the new indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is a waste of time, and have been expressing this opinion behind the president’s back, per a video published by Mediaite.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department indicted Comey after a grand jury in North Carolina accused him on two counts of making threats against the president’s life over an Instagram post that the former FBI director shared almost a year ago, and later deleted.

The post in question included a photo of seashells on a beach arranged to read, “86 47.” The number 86 is sometimes used as slang for tossing something out or getting rid of it, and is often used in restaurants to indicate a menu item is no longer available.

If that sounds laughable to you, lawyers in the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) apparently agree; they don't seem to be putting serious effort into the case. According to a report at Yahoo! News, the document makes no reference to evidence, aside from the photograph Comey took on a North Carolina beach. Has our sense of justice sunk so law that DOJ lawyers think that constitutes a crime? The answer appears to be yes. We advise caution when you next walk along an ocean's shore; you could wind up behind bars. Wanshel writes:

“GMA” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos noted to Karl Wednesday that the “first indictment of James Comey was dismissed,” and that “lawyers close to the president” said this indictment would likely see the same fate.

And this is when Karl decided to spill the tea about what sources close to the president have told him.

“I’ve been talking to current and former prosecutors, federal prosecutors who are calling this the flimsiest federal indictment that they have ever seen,” Karl said. “Even Trump’s allies are privately calling it ‘embarrassing,’ or as one very prominent former Trump DOJ official told me last night, ‘depressing.’”

In standard Trumpian fashion, we see signs that DOJ officials are lying about what prompted them to bring the case:

“There is no doubt that this indictment was driven by the president himself,” Karl said. “Look, Donald Trump has made it clear for years that he wants to indict Jim Comey. As recently as three days ago, he suggested that Comey needed to be prosecuted — although he offered an entirely different reason. And Trump has put enormous pressure on the people who work for him to go after not just Comey, but a long list of his perceived political enemies.”

He continued, “One of the main reasons that he fired Attorney General Pam Bondi is that he felt that she was not being aggressive enough in prosecuting those enemies, and Attorney General Todd Blanche knows that if he wants to be formally nominated as AG — right now he’s just the acting Attorney General — he needs to prove to President Trump that he will be more aggressive in prosecuting those enemies than Bondi was.”

He added, “And I can tell you this … shortly after that indictment was announced, Todd Blanche was at the White House meeting with senior White House officials.”