On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat.
Also on Friday, James Comey, the man who was heading the FBI during Flynn’s confessed transgression, tweeted the following:
An act of subtle shade-throwing or pure coincidence?
Did Comey just happen to think of Amos 5:24 on the day that Flynn revealed he is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe into illegal collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia?
It’s impossible to say for sure, and that may be how Comey likes it.
READ MORE: Barack Obama takes veiled jab at Trump: ‘Think before you tweet’
This isn’t the first time that Comey, who was fired by Trump in May, has appeared to use the art of subtweeting to share quotes and proverbs that could be construed as cryptic commentary on the news of the day.
Defined by the Oxford Dictionaries as a Twitter post that “refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism,” subtweeting can be an effective way to get a point across while still maintaining a case for deniability.
One possible exhibit: on Oct. 30, Comey tweeted this quote from American theologian and anti-Nazi commentator Reinhold Niebuhr:
That tweet came hours after Mueller filed charges against Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his then-deputy Richard Gates.
READ: Former FBI director James Comey reveals secret Twitter account
Then on Nov. 19, Comey tweeted this quote musing about how leaders should handle success and failure:
It came hours after Trump tweeted he should have left three American college basketball players suspected of shoplifting in a Chinese prison, after the father of one of the players suggested Trump had little to do with their release.
Less than a week later, Trump took to Twitter to heap praise on Fox News and rail against CNN.
Just over half an hour later, Comey relayed a quote from Thomas Jefferson about freedom of the press.
Then this past Wednesday, Comey shared this Winston Churchill quote an hour and a half after Trump tweeted about the “Deep State” and its efforts to undermine his presidency.
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