James Comey indicted over seashell photo that officials say threatened Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
April 28, 2026, 2:47 PM EDT / Updated April 28, 2026, 7:01 PM EDTBy Ryan J. Reilly, Monica Alba, Gary Grumbach and Michael Kosnar
The Justice Department secured an indictment Tuesday charging former FBI Director James Comey with threatening the life of President Donald Trump by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram.
The two-count indictment, posted Tuesday afternoon, alleges that a reasonable person would interpret the image of the shells, arranged to spell out "86 47," as "a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States."
Justice Department attorneys sought the indictment in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where Comey has a beach house and where he posted the beach scene photo. The Department of Homeland Securitypreviously investigated Comey, who has long been a Trump target, over the May Instagram post, even subjecting him to questioning by the Secret Service.
Comey had deleted the post, saying it never occurred to him that it would be interpreted as being violent. "Eighty-six" is a term commonly used in restaurants when an item is sold out, and it's also informally used to mean "cancel" or "get rid of."
In a subsequent Instagram post in May, Comey said that he assumed the shells he saw on a beach walk were "a political message" and that he "didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," adding that he opposed violence "of any kind."
Comey said in a video posted after his indictment that he was innocent, that he was not afraid and that he still believed in the independent judiciary.
"They're back," he said of the Trump administration. "This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won't be the end of it."
Comey said it was very important to remember that "this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be."
Patrick Fitzgerald, an attorney for Comey, said in a statement that his client "vigorously denies the charges contained in the Indictment filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina."
"We will contest these charges in the courtroom and look forward to vindicating Mr. Comey and the First Amendment," Fitzgerald added.
The White House referred all questions about the matter to the Justice Department.
At a news conference Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not offer any evidence that Comey "knowingly and willfully" made a threat, which is a core component of the charges. Pressed by NBC News about how federal prosecutors could prove Comey's intent, Blanche said there had been a "tremendous amount of investigation" and that, in general, the Justice Department proves intent with witnesses and documents and potentially by examining the witness.
Blanche added that it was "very premature" to discuss whether Comey would choose to testify at a theoretical trial.
"I am not going to talk about the evidence that we have. That's unfair to him. It's unfair to the prosecutors," Blanche said.
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DOJ announces indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on two counts00:50
Two senior law enforcement officials said Tuesday that even though an arrest warrant was issued, discussions are ongoing between the Justice Department and Comey's attorneys and that the expectation is that Comey will turn himself in to federal authorities in North Carolina this week.
Blanche referenced those discussions at the news conference but did not elaborate on them.
The two law enforcement officials said don't expect to see Comey in handcuffs, and no law enforcement personnel have been told to prepare for an arrest.
Trump administration officials quickly rallied to condemn Comey over the post in May, with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem boasting that Secret Service agents interviewed the man she called the "disgraced" former FBI director, while National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said Comey should be "put behind bars for this."
The Justice Department has accused James Comey of threatening President Donald Trump in this Instagram post. @comey via Instagram
The Trump administration previously indicted Comey on charges alleging he lied to Congress five years ago, in a case that was dismissed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor behind the original case, a former lawyer for Trump, had been unlawfully appointed.
Comey was first indicted in September on charges of making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation. The Justice Department charged him just days before the statute of limitations expired. The case centered on Comey's testimony to Congress in 2020 that he stood by his congressional testimony in 2017, when he said he did not authorize any third party to speak to the media about an FBI investigation.
A judge dismissed the first case against Comey, as well as one against New York Attorney General Letitia James, citing the "unlawful" Trump appointment of Lindsey Halligan as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Halligan was the sole prosecutor to sign the Comey and James indictments, a departure from most federal indictments.
The indictment of Comey in that case did not include an arrest warrant.
Blanche said Tuesday that the grand jury, not the Justice Department, issued an arrest warrant in the new case against Comey. In some rare instances, grand juries have the authority to issue arrest warrants.
Typically, grand juries issue indictments, which then lead to arrest warrants. Usually, it's prosecutors or police who request arrest warrants, if needed, from judges or through the clerk's office.
There was an unsealed request for a warrant on the docket Tuesday from the U.S. attorney to the federal court clerk. It does not say it's at the request of the grand jury, and the warrant itself is not visible on the docket.
Prosecutors face only a low probable cause standard when they try to secure an indictment from a federal grand jury, not a unanimous guilty verdict that a defendant committed a crime beyond any reasonable doubt, as required at trial.
Trump had publicly urged then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to take legal action against Comey, as well as James. Trump soured on Comey, a lifelong Republican, shortly after he took office in 2017. He fired him in May 2017, which sparked the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, a probe that routinely drew Trump's ire.
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Don't know about the charges and if they will stick. If it could be proven he was the one that arranged them it might be a different story.
What I do not buy is his "In a subsequent Instagram post in May, Comey said that he assumed the shells he saw on a beach walk were "a political message" and that he "didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," adding that he opposed violence "of any kind." The man was the head of the FBI for God's sake, and he is claiming he could not figure out what 8647 meant? Come'on man.
Still, I don't know the legality of what he did and I am fine letting the court figure it out.
The question is, will the court allow the Trump DOJ to change the definition of "86" just to support their case?
Eighty-six is slang meaning "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to." It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix.
Eighty-six or 86 is American English slang, generally meaning to "get rid of" someone or something.
Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant .
...how many minutes will it take before this gets thrown back in the face of the AG by a judge who is trying hard not to laugh.
Not changing it.
According to Gemini:
All they have to do is find a Judge that will declare it is OK as long as it is against Trump. There are more than a few around.
So you're going with an AI over the companies that have been defining words and writing dictionaries for decades? Doing a little cherry picking are we?
Not to mention, how the DOJ going to prove his intent to mean it as "killing".
The possible definition has evolved, unless you chose to ignore it
No
That is what they have to do.
about 10. that's how long it takes to catch one's breath after a hearty belly laugh
Not according to Merriam-Webster.
Wow, that might be the new maga excuse for every new wacko indictment. Tax dollars at work.
Now all they have to do is find some like minded jurors after seeing movies and other proof that 86 can be interpreted as kill that I am confident the prosecution will show. I hope the defense has something other than "not according to Merriam-Webster".
You seem to forget that it is the DOJ's job to PROVE that he put the shells there and that he INTENDED to use them to threaten Trump's life with no corroborating evidence whatsoever.
You could have just stopped there. Trying to claim it would take a partisan judge to throw this hilarious garbage out of court is adorable though.
Ask yourself this, if Trump had posted a picture of rocks in 2022 that said "86 46" and Democrats indicted Trump on two federal felony counts, including knowingly making a threat to take the life of and inflict bodily harm upon President Biden, and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, would you seriously be claiming he was in trouble and only a Trump friendly judge would toss out the case? You'd be worried for him thinking the charges were warranted and he might get convicted of the crimes he's accused of? Seriously? It was hard to take many rightwing conservatives serious before, but this is on a whole new level of inanity.
How about other languages? Exactly how far can we imagine something is sinister on the beach?
Yeah, I don't buy his statement that he didn't know what 86 meant. But I have little doubt the charges will be tossed based on the First Amendment.
No doubt he knew that before doing it. Turns out he is a run of the mill coward.
No it wouldn’t. This is protected speech whether he arranged it or not. Even if you accept the worst possible interpretation of this picture, it doesn’t qualify as an actual threat. We have plenty of caselaw on the elements and limitations of a true, legal threat, and this picture would never hold up as such.
I will wait for the courts to decide and abide by their decision [deleted][✘]
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Maybe I'll arrange some french fries to make the point.
Arrest him. He threatened Biden for how many years?
I'm pretty sure Comey's defense will start off with this one.
Someone should ask Posobiec if he thinks Comey is guilty.
Maybe he can be a witness for Comey, lol.
He can claim copyright infringement., lol!
Problem isn't going away. It's mainstream on the left:
That's because the problem is really with every American left or right and we have a vast divide between us. It's so wide that frankly it's hard to even see the reality that the other side apparently existing in. There is some other reality in America where there exists evidence of illegal immigrants voting in droves for Democrats, where 'the gays' are out trying to turn their children gay or trans, where there is apparently convincing evidence of a liberal 'deep state' which controls America (and yet can't keep a maniac like Trump out of office), where everyone is 'super not racist' because they 'have a black friend' but also support voter restrictions that courts found "target African-Americans with almost surgical precision", and everyone believes Fox News is an unbiased news source. And then there are the rest of us out here in actual reality who try to keep an eye on what our crazy racist MAGA cousins are saying or watching on Fox News by tuning in to their network for a few minutes only to be disgusted at the blatant Trump worship on display.
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that's the funniest conspiracy theory
Interesting that many on the right said that post was wrong. Is Trumps assholery new to you?
good fucking grief! Mr. Reiner was killed by his son. I doubt very much that he was inspired by Reiner's so-called TDS
Here is the most important fact:
Justice Department attorneys sought the indictment in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where Comey has a beach house and where he posted the beach scene photo. The Department of Homeland Security previously investigated Comey, who has long been a Trump target, over the May Instagram post, even subjecting him to questioning by the Secret Service.
A much different venue.
The two-count indictment, posted Tuesday afternoon, alleges that a reasonable person would interpret the image of the shells, arranged to spell out "86 47," as "a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States."
86 means to kill? I've always thought that when you were 86ed you were thrown out and not allowed to come back like in a bar. I've never heard of 86 meaning to kill or even hurt anybody. Apparently, I'm not a "reasonable person".
This is another case of abuse of our court system by Trump that will be thrown out as soon as they have to provide evidence.
Maybe not.
According to Gemini:
I wasn't aware of this so it seems very possible that he wasn't. Good luck proving it in court.
I dont have to. We will see if the prosecutor can
Trump could be eighty sixed by being impeached and convicted. He has already been impeached twice. A gop senate saved him...
Looks like Todd Blanche is auditioning for the Attorney General nomination from Trump by just making shit up.
The slang term "86" does not explicitly mean to kill someone. It's used in all sorts of ways, even with non-living subjects.
Blanche should be disbarred for this malicious political stunt, especially after the Ghislaine Maxwell thing. What a disgrace.
The thing was posted like a year ago, but wasn’t “threat” enough to react to it until now.
(And yes, that matters.)
In related news, the FBI is seeking any information leading to the capture of this political assassin. We need that $440m ball room more than ever.
Someone spraint painted 86 47 twice in two 15 ft x 30ft areas of the Lincoln reflecting pool which was under renovations.
While initial reports said the areas were tarp covered,
workers were later seen painting that area with typical blue pool paint, not the color that Trump reportedly wanted.