Former FBI director James B. Comey has been indicted on allegations that a photo he posted on social media in 2025 constituted a dangerous threat to the president.
The indictment by a federal grand jury in North Carolina marks the second time the Justice Department has pursued a criminal prosecution against Comey and is the law enforcement agency’s latest attempt to criminally charge one of President Donald Trump’s longtime political foes.
The two charges stem from a photo that Comey posted online showing seashells on a beach that were arranged to write out “86 47.” Trump is the 47th president; “86” can mean banning or removing someone, but it can also be slang for killing a person. Comey quickly removed the post after receiving criticism that the phrase could be used to communicate the threat of violence.
The three-page indictment states that the seashells were “arranged in a pattern making out ‘86 47’, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”
Comey issued a video statement maintaining his innocence and denouncing the current Justice Department. “This won’t be the end of it,” he said. “Nothing has changed with me. I am still innocent, I am still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go.”
Comey has suggested that he stumbled on the shell formation during a walk along the beach and did not arrange the shells himself. There is generally a high legal threshold to charge someone with threatening a person based on their language, and legal experts said it would be tough for the Justice Department to build a strong case with just the seashells.
Comey was charged with one count of making threats against the president and another count of transmitting a threat against state lines.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, acting attorney general Todd Blanche sidestepped questions about what evidence prosecutors have that Comey intended to actually hurt the president — an aspect of a threat case that prosecutors would typically need to prove to secure a conviction.
“It’s not a very difficult line to look at and it’s not in my mind a difficult line for one to cross over one way or the other,” Blanche said. “You are not allowed to threaten the president of the United States of America. That’s not my decision, that’s Congress’ decision and a statute that they passed.”
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey wrote in the original May 2025 Instagram post.
In a follow-up post, Comey wrote that he assumed the shells he saw “were a political message” but said he was not advocating violence.
Soon after Comey’s post, Trump said in a TV interview that the former FBI director “knew exactly” what it meant.
“If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination,” Trump told Fox News in an interview. “And it says it loud and clear.”
Federal officials issued a warrant for Comey’s arrest Tuesday afternoon. It’s unclear whether federal authorities will allow the former FBI director to turn himself in and avoid a public arrest.
Blanche did not reveal any plans but said the Justice Department would be in contact with Comey’s legal team.
An initial court appearance for Comey had not been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, a jurist in the Eastern District of North Carolina who was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush.
Comey was named FBI director by President Barack Obama. Trump fired Comey four years later over his handling of the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
In a separate case, the Justice Department in September indicted Comey in the Eastern District of Virginia on two counts alleging that he lied to Congress. The Virginia grand jury rejected a third count sought by government prosecutors involving another alleged false statement.
The Virginia indictment against Comey centered on testimony he gave in September 2020 during a hearing on the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation. The indictment was delivered over the rare objections of career prosecutors who insisted there was insufficient evidence to charge Comey.
Ultimately, a judge tossed the indictment, ruling that the Trump administration unlawfully appointed then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan to run the office and oversee the case.
The Justice Department has not attempted to bring that case to a grand jury again.
Trump has called for Comey’s prosecution for years.
When Erik S. Siebert, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney who led the office before Halligan, concluded that the evidence was insufficient to charge, Trump forced him out of his job.
Last July, the Trump administration fired Comey’s daughter Maurene Comey — a well-regarded federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. She had worked on the criminal cases of Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The younger Comey is suing the government over her firing, saying there was no reason to push her out of the job other than the president’s animosity toward her father or how officials perceived her political beliefs.
The indictment returned Tuesday against James Comey did not reveal what — if any — evidence the Justice Department and FBI has gathered against the former FBI director beyond his public Instagram post with the seashells.
“You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendants if that’s appropriate,” Blanche said. “That’s how we will prove intent in this case.”
Jimmy Gurulé, a Notre Dame law professor and former federal prosecutor, said he believes the Justice Department will struggle to build a viable case based on the evidence in the indictment.
“Posting numbers constitute a threat? I just don’t accept that,” Gurulé said. “They are going to have to prove that to a jury — beyond a reasonable doubt. … I don’t think they are going to be able to satisfy that legal threshold.”
The indictment comes as Blanche aggressively seeks to bring cases against the president’s foes. Blanche took over leadership of the Justice Department this month after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, in part because the president was frustrated that she struggled to bring cases against his political enemies.
In the past few weeks, under Blanche’s direction, the Justice Department has barreled ahead with a broad conspiracy investigation into Democratic administration officials.
The Washington Post reported that the probe in part is looking at the decade-old actions of Obama administration officials, including former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former CIA director John Brennan, who played significant roles in investigating the Russia ties.
Prosecutors are closest to presenting a case to a grand jury against Brennan on charges that he lied to Congress when he testified about a 2017 intelligence assessment, which found that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election in part to help Trump win, according to people familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Brennan has denied any wrongdoing.
The Justice Department had also been investigating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell in relation to the Fed’s $2.5 billion overhaul of two office buildings overlooking the National Mall.
Trump has long demanded lower interest rates and has blamed Powell for not making those changes.
The Justice Department dropped the investigation last week, which cleared the way for Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, to be confirmed. Powell’s term as chair ends May 15.
Comey suggested in his video statement Tuesday afternoon that he believes the case against him does not comport with Justice Department principles.
“It’s really important that all of us remember this is not who we are as a country,” Comey said. “This is not what the Justice Department is supposed to be — and the good news is we get closer every day to restoring those values.”
Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this report.
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