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(LAFAYETTE, Ind.) — An Indiana judge and his wife were injured in a shooting at their home over the weekend, with a search underway for the suspected gunman, officials said.

Tippecanoe County Judge Steven Meyer and his wife, Kimberly Meyer, were shot in their home on Sunday, according to Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush.

Both are in stable condition, police said Monday.

Officers responded to the home in Lafayette around 2:17 p.m. Sunday and found both injured from the shooting, according to the Lafayette Police Department. Judge Meyer had an injury to one of his arms and his wife sustained an injury to her hip, police said. 

Shell casings were recovered at the scene, according to police.

The investigation remains ongoing with multiple agencies, including the FBI, involved, police said. No arrests have been announced.

“I want to ensure the community that every available resource is being used to apprehend the individual(s) responsible for this senseless unacceptable act of violence,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said in a statement. “I have tremendous confidence in the Lafayette Police Department and I want to thank all of the local, state, and federal agencies who are assisting in this investigation.”

In a statement issued on her and her husband’s behalf, Kimberly Meyer said, “I have great confidence in the Lafayette Police Department’s investigation and want to thank all the agencies involved for their work.”

“We are also incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community; everyone has been so kind and compassionate,” she said. “We would also like to thank the medical personnel who provided care and assistance to us following the incident.”

Meyer is a judge in the Tippecanoe County Superior Court. He was first elected to the position in 2014. He has previously served as a public defender for Tippecanoe County and on the Lafayette City Council.

Tippecanoe County Judges said in a statement on Monday that cases in Meyer’s court “will continue to be heard in a timely manner.”

“There has been an overwhelming outpouring of support from judges throughout the state offering to assist in any way,” the statement said.

Chief Justice Rush urged other judges in Indiana to “remain vigilant in your own security” and to contact their local sheriff, noting in a statement on Sunday that “the shooter is purportedly still at large.”

“I worry about the safety of all our judges,” she said in the statement. “As you work to peacefully resolve more than 1 million cases a year, you must not only feel safe, you must also be safe. Any violence against a judge or a judge’s family is completely unacceptable. As public servants, you are dedicated to the rule of law.”

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(NEW YORK) — A federal grand jury in North Carolina has indicted former FBI Director James Comey over a controversial Instagram post from last year that President Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed was a threat against the president.

Renewing efforts to prosecute one of Trump’s longtime adversaries, Department of Justice prosecutors brought the case after a judge last year threw out an indictment against Comey on unrelated charges.

The new indictment centers on a controversy that erupted nearly a year ago when Comey, in a since-deleted Instagram post, shared a picture showing the numbers “86 47” written in seashells on the beach with the caption “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Citing the slang meaning of “86” as to “nix” or “get rid” of something, allies of the president alleged that the post was a veiled threat against Trump, and the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service quickly launched investigations into the posts.

CNN was first to report news of the indictment.

Prosecutors will likely face a high legal bar to prove that the Instagram post constituted a “true threat,” which the Supreme Court in 2023 found required showing an individual understood their message would be perceived as threatening. With the phrase “86 47” increasingly adopted by protesters of the Trump administration, the case could carry sweeping implications for the First Amendment.

When asked about the post last year, Trump suggested that Comey should be prosecuted over the post, which Trump alleged was a call “for the assassination of the president.”

“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Trump told Fox News last year.

At the time, Trump said he would leave a decision about charging Comey to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, though he insisted that Comey was a “dirty cop.”

“When you add his history to that … he’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I’m going to let them make that decision,” Trump said.

Following backlash over the post, Comey removed the photo from Instagram and said he was unaware that the post could be associated with violence.

“I posted earlier 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,” Comey said on May 15.

The post drew swift criticism from the Trump administration, with White House staff describing the post “deeply concerning” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard calling for Comey to be imprisoned.

“James Comey in my view should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” Gabbard told Fox News.

Comey is not the first public figure to face pushback for invoking number “86,” with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drawing criticism in 2020 for appearing during a television interview with a small figurine of the numbers “86 45” on a table behind her, and similar “86 46” references appearing online during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Comey was indicted last year on unrelated charges for allegedly lying to Congress and obstruction related to his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020. Comey’s lawyers moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing the case was politically motivated and that the grand jury never saw the charges in their entirety, and the case was ultimately dismissed over issues with the legitimacy of the prosecutor who brought the case.  

The new indictment comes as the Department of Justice in recent weeks has ramped up investigations of some of Trump’s perceived political foes under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is heading up the Justice Department following Trump’s ouster of Pam Bondi.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice removed a top career prosecutor from a controversial investigation in Florida after sources told ABC News that she had expressed concerns about a rushed effort to bring criminal charges against former CIA Director John Brennan.

Prosecutors in April also secured an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center — frequently criticized by conservatives for their assessment of hate groups — for bank fraud and money laundering offenses related to its paying of informants to infiltrate such groups. The organization has denied all wrongdoing.

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(NEW YORK) — Ian Maxwell, the brother of convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, is speaking out on his sister’s ongoing effort to overturn her conviction, her recent Congressional deposition, her transfer to a federal prison camp in Texas, and more in a broad interview Tuesday with ABC News.

Ian Maxwell’s comments come a week after his sister invoked the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee last Monday, where she was asked questions about her relationship with Epstein and her involvement in the late sex offender’s criminal activity.

“The legal advice was absolutely clear. And you need to think about this quite carefully,” Ian Maxwell said of his sister’s decision to not answer the questions, reiterating that she did speak with United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.

“He asked her over two days of questioning several hundred questions. She didn’t fail to answer a single one of those,” he said.

During her interview with Blanche, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, Maxwell continued to deny any involvement in Epstein’s sexual exploitation and said she had not witnessed any wrongdoing by any other man — including Trump or former President Bill Clinton.  Maxwell was granted limited immunity for the interview as long as she answered questions truthfully.

Ian Maxwell also touched on the possibility of President Trump pardoning his sister, though he noted she had not asked Trump for a pardon. He said the idea that she could exonerate Trump and Clinton of any wrongdoing with her testimony was attributable to a former lawyer of Maxwell’s.

“Ghislaine has not asked President Trump for a pardon. The fact of the matter is that the Epstein scandal is being used by both sides of the aisle to beat the present president and the former president,” he said.

Ian Maxwell also discussed a petition pending in federal court in New York that seeks to overturn her conviction or reduce her sentence.

The petition alleges nine separate grounds — including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence — for Ghislaine Maxwell’s contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her 2021 trial.

“I am hopeful that the petition will reach the judge presiding over the petition based on the evidence, the evidentiary record,” he said.

In the interview, the British businessman addressed Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas over the summer.

“Ghislaine is possibly the most notorious prisoner in the U.S. federal system today,” he said. “We know that prison is a very violent place. Jeffrey Epstein died. Ghislaine did have many threats in Tallahassee where she was. It was a notoriously violent and dangerous place for her own safety. She had to be moved.”

At the time of the move, the reason for the transfer was not made clear. FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.

Ian Maxwell disputed the idea that his sister was transferred as any sort of reward for protecting Trump.

“President Trump has not done anything wrong. You tell me, have you found anything wrong in the papers yet? I haven’t seen anything there,” he said regarding the recent release of Epstein files by the Justice Department.

Ian Maxwell also discussed the authenticity of a photograph of his sister with the former Prince Andrew and his late accuser Virginia Giuffre.

“I would maintain that Ghislaine continues to have tremendous doubt about the picture that was published and believes that it is not the original and may have been doctored in some way. We don’t know,” said Ian Maxwell, who backs his sister’s stance that she was not responsible for introducing the former prince to Epstein.

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. In his interview, Ian Maxwell maintained that his sister “did not receive a fair trial” and said that “the verdict is deeply unsafe.”

Ian Maxwell was asked to elaborate on claims made in Ghislaine Maxwell’s pending petition that as many as 25 other men settled claims privately with Epstein accusers.

“The only person who is in jail, the only person whose been tried and found guilty is a woman, my sister,” Ian Maxwell said. “All of these men have disappeared into the ether.”

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