DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies recalled outfielder Yanquiel Fernández, the organization's No. 5-ranked prospect, from Triple-A Albuquerque on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old Fernández is batting .284 with 13 homers and 39 RBIs in 64 games for Albuquerque this season. The Rockies signed him for $295,000 as an international free agent out of Cuba in 2019, when he was 16.
His major league debut will have to wait until Wednesday at the earliest. The left-handed batter did not play in Tuesday night's 6-5 loss to the Houston Astros, who started lefty Colton Gordon.
Fernández's promotion was one of several roster moves by the major league-worst Rockies. Colorado also selected the contract of catcher Austin Nola from Albuquerque; optioned catcher Braxton Fulford to the Triple-A club; reinstated right-hander Tanner Gordon from the 15-day injured list and optioned him to Albuquerque; and designated outfielder Sam Hilliard for assignment.
The 35-year-old Nola, the older brother of Philadelphia right-hander Aaron Nola, made his big league debut in 2019 for Seattle and last played in the majors in 2023 for San Diego.
Starting catcher Hunter Goodman was back in the lineup Tuesday night against the Astros and homered twice. Goodman went deep on the first pitch he saw after missing four games with a hamstring issue, and he homered again in the ninth inning, giving him 16 this season.
Fulford, who replaced Goodman in the lineup in each of the previous four games, is batting .250 this season in 14 games.
Gordon is 1-2 with a 4.24 ERA in three major league starts this season.
Hilliard batted .196 in 20 games for Colorado.
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Colorado Rockies' Orlando Arcia, front, congratulates Hunter Goodman as he returns to the dugout after hitting a solo home run off Houston Astros starting pitcher Colton Gordon in the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Colorado Rockies outfielder Yanquiel Fernández warms up before a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted again Tuesday, this time in an investigation over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against President Donald Trump.
The criminal case is the second in a matter of months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department's relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president. The seashells photo was posted nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured at a time when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, aims to prove to the president that he is the right person to hold the job permanently.
The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case against the ex-FBI director months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could expose the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target Comey, who had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election. Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term as that investigation was underway, and they have openly feuded ever since.
The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon" Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence to support the claim Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since he Comey said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat to do harm.
At a news conference announcing the indictment, Blanche refused to elaborate on any evidence of intent the government has but said: “How do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it's appropriate. And that's how we'll prove intent in this case.”
And in an effort to rebut claims that Comey was being selectively prosecuted, Blanche contended that the case against the former FBI director was similar in kind to other threats cases the department routinely brings against the lesser known.
“While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” Blanche said.
The case was filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the state where Comey found the seashells.
Comey's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Tuesday, and a Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately comment.
The prosecution arises from a May post on Instagram in which Comey shared a photo of seashells he saw on a walk in the arrangement of “86 47.” He has said he assumed that the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Nonetheless, Comey was swiftly interviewed by the Secret Service after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president.
Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview in May, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant."
“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. "If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”
The former FBI director was indicted in September on charges that he lied to and obstructed Congress related to testimony he gave in 2020 about whether he had authorized inside information about an investigation to be provided to a journalist. He denied any wrongdoing, and the case was subsequently dismissed after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who brought the indictment was illegally appointed.
Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s Republican administration.
But the relationship was strained from the start, including after Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the president -- an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that while Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.
Blanche was elevated earlier this month from deputy attorney general to acting attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi, who had frustrated Trump with the department's struggles to build successful criminal cases against his adversaries. Blanche since then has moved quickly to announce politically charged prosecutions, including a case last week against the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which is accused by the Justice Department of defrauding donors by paying donors to infiltrate hate groups. The group has denied any wrongdoing.
Comey is among many Trump foes to face scrutiny over the last year.
The Justice Department, for instance, is also pursuing a criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, another key figure in the Russia investigation -- one of Trump’s chief grievances and a saga that he and his supporters have long sought retaliation for. Brennan has denied doing anything wrong.
CNN was the first to report the second indictment against Comey.
Follow the AP's coverage of former FBI Director James Comey at https://apnews.com/hub/james-comey.
FILE - Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey at Harvard University's Institute of Politics' JFK Jr. Forum in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
