A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday on two felony counts tied to a May 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged to read "86 47." Comey deleted it the same day. His first indictment, on lying-to-Congress charges in Virginia, was dismissed in November; the DOJ's appeal is pending. Acting AG Todd Blanche — formerly Trump's personal criminal defense lawyer — announced the new charges three days after the WHCD shooting. Combined, the counts carry up to 10 years.

1. Threats Are Threats (Todd Blanche, Mike Davis, U.S. Attorney Boyle)

Federal threat statutes apply to former FBI directors. The DOJ has to charge a public "86 47" against the President.

A reasonable person looking at "86 47" sees a call to remove the 47th president. "86" is slang for getting rid of someone. The indictment says a familiar reader would interpret the arrangement as a serious expression of intent to harm Trump. Blanche, at Tuesday's press conference: "You are not allowed to threaten the president." Mike Davis of the Article III Project added that no one, especially a former FBI director, is above that rule.

We just suffered another attempted murder for chissakes. The indictment dropped three days after the third assassination attempt against Trump. Blanche argued the case is the same kind DOJ regularly prosecutes against lesser-known defendants. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, W. Ellis Boyle, pledged Comey would receive every form of due process.

2. This Is The End Of Whatever Independence The DOJ Had Left (Andrew Weissmann, Joyce Vance, Patrick Fitzgerald)

Trump's former defense lawyer is now Acting AG, announcing felony charges against the man Trump fired in 2017, over a year-old beach photo. Like, cmon.

This is Trump vendetta. Comey's first indictment was dismissed in November after Senior Judge Cameron McGowan Currie found the Trump-appointed prosecutor running it had been unlawfully installed. DOJ's appeal is pending. A senior career EDVA prosecutor was fired in January after refusing to lead a re-indictment. Now a second case lands in a different district on a different theory.

Brought by Trump's own former criminal defense attorney. Blanche led Trump's New York hush-money defense before joining DOJ; Trump fired AG Pam Bondi on April 2 and Blanche stepped up. Andrew Weissmann, Joyce Vance, and Barbara McQuade all described the case on MSNBC as weak and retaliatory. Patrick Fitzgerald, Comey's lead counsel and the prosecutor who tried Blagojevich and Libby, said the team will contest the charges and look forward to vindicating Comey and the First Amendment.

Conservative First Amendment scholars and former federal prosecutors say the case is legally indefensible.

The "true threat" standard requires more than a deleted Instagram of seashells. Counterman v. Colorado (2023) requires the government to show the speaker recklessly disregarded the threatening nature of the speech. Comey deleted the post the same day and disclaimed any violent intent. UCLA Law's Eugene Volokh told CNN the indictment is not going anywhere. Ken White (Popehat), a former federal prosecutor, called it preposterous. Jonathan Turley on Fox said the case felt like a parallel universe and predicted a First Amendment challenge at the gate.

Selective prosecution is the obvious motion to dismiss. In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was filmed in front of an "86 45" sign; Jack Posobiec posted "86 46" during the Biden presidency. Neither was charged. From this view, on this conduct in this venue, the charge will not survive contact with the First Amendment.

Where This Lands

Where this lands depends on whether the EDNC indictment survives a motion to dismiss on First Amendment and selective-prosecution grounds, on whether the Fourth Circuit reinstates the original EDVA case on appeal — which would put Comey simultaneously facing two prosecutions in two districts — and on whether a jury, if it gets that far, could be persuaded that arranging seashells into "86 47" amounts to a true threat.

Sources