A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday on two federal counts of threatening the president — charges stemming not from classified documents or congressional testimony, but from a beach photo of seashells.
The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, alleges Comey posted an image to Instagram on May 15, 2025, showing shells arranged in the sand to spell “8647.” Prosecutors contend that “a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the image as a serious expression of intent to harm the 47th president. Comey deleted the post the same day.
The Photo and What It Said
Comey captioned the post “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” He later said he found the shells already arranged on the beach, not that he placed them. After the image drew backlash and he deleted it, he posted a fuller explanation: “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.”
In American English slang, “86” carries multiple meanings. In restaurants and bars it typically means an item is unavailable or a customer is refused service. In certain criminal and military contexts it can mean to kill or eliminate someone — a meaning Comey said never crossed his mind.
Linguists note the lethal usage exists but is far from dominant. Jesse Sheidlower, a former Oxford English Dictionary editor, said that while dictionaries do include the term as a synonym for killing, “that usage is not nearly as widespread” as the other definitions.
The indictment charges Comey under 18 U.S.C. § 871, threatening the president, and 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.
A Second Federal Case
Tuesday’s charges mark the second time the Trump Justice Department has indicted Comey. The same DOJ, also led by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, announced expanded federal execution methods including firing squads on April 24, part of a broader push the department is calling “Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty.”
A first indictment, returned in late September 2025, accused Comey of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding — tied to his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony about the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation. That case was thrown out in November 2025. Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found the interim U.S. attorney who had secured the indictment, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed under federal vacancy law and the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The dismissal was without prejudice.
Comey’s lead attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald — the former federal prosecutor best known for the Valerie Plame leak investigation — argued after that dismissal that the statute of limitations had expired and no re-indictment was possible. The Justice Department took a different view.
DOJ: “Will Not Be Tolerated”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the indictment Tuesday, invoking the broader climate of political violence.
“Threatening the life of the President of the United States is a grave violation of our nation’s laws,” Blanche said. “The grand jury returned an indictment alleging James Comey did just that, at a time when this country has witnessed violent incitement followed by deadly actions against President Trump and other elected officials.” The reference to violence against the president follows the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner three nights earlier, in which a 31-year-old Caltech graduate breached the security checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and knives.
He added that while “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.” Blanche also said plainly: “You are not allowed to threaten the president of the United States of America.”
Defense: “Vindicating the First Amendment”
Fitzgerald responded quickly.
“Mr. Comey vigorously denies the charges contained in the Indictment filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina,” Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We will contest these charges in the courtroom and look forward to vindicating Mr. Comey and the First Amendment.”
Comey responded to the new indictment in a Substack video, saying “this is not who we are as a country” and “this is not what the Department of Justice is supposed to be.”
Legal scholars were broadly skeptical about the government’s prospects. Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment specialist at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, called the charges “clearly not a punishable threat” under existing precedent and predicted the case “is not going anywhere.” Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at George Washington University, said Comey’s post is “a very ambiguous statement at best” and that proving the crime would require prosecutors to show clear intent — a high bar on these facts.
The key legal test is the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Counterman v. Colorado, which requires prosecutors to show the defendant subjectively understood his message would be perceived as a genuine threat — not just that a reasonable observer might read it that way. Comey’s claim that he photographed shells he found on the beach, unaware of the violent meaning, goes directly to that question.
An arraignment date has not yet been announced.
Sources 6 cited · 1 primary
- Federal Grand Jury Indicts Former FBI Director James Comey for Threats to Harm President Trump
- Former FBI Director James Comey indicted over alleged 'threat' against Trump
- James Comey indicted over 2025 social media post allegedly threatening Trump
- Grand jury indicts former FBI director James Comey for a second time
- James Comey indicted over seashell photo that officials say threatened Trump
- Comey appears in court in Trump threat case that's likely to pose a challenge for Justice Department
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