Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted by the Justice Department on Tuesday following an investigation into a photo he posted and deleted last May of seashells on a beach arranged to resemble “86 47” — a combination of numbers that officials said constituted a threat against President Trump.
“Threatening the life of the President of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Comey has been charged with two felony counts: one count of making a threat to kill or harm the president and a second count of transmitting that threat publicly. Both counts combined carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“Nothing has changed with me,” Comey said in a video responding to the new charges. “I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let’s go.”
According to Merriam-Webster, “eighty-six” or “86” is a slang term that means “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” It originated in the 1930s when it was used to identify a soda fountain or lunch counter item that was sold out, per its entry in the dictionary. Its use broadened in recent years to include the meaning “to kill,” Merriam-Webster noted, adding: “We do not enter this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
Trump is the 47th president.
Comey’s since-deleted Instagram post.
(via X)
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey wrote in the caption along with the photo of the seashells published on May 15, 2025. He removed the Instagram post the same day.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey explained in a follow-up post. “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.”
Comey’s original post sparked outrage among Trump and his supporters, who accused Comey of advocating for the president’s killing.
“A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox News at the time. “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 same month, Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service about the post, according to the Associated Press.
The First Amendment generally protects Americans’ free speech, including their right to criticize the government. But there are limits when that speech includes a threat against elected officials like the president. One of the statutes that Comey was indicted under prohibits any threat to “take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.” The other makes it a crime to transmit such a threat across state lines.
The indictment comes days after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was disrupted by a gunman who ran through a security checkpoint and allegedly opened fire in a hallway above the ballroom while the president, first lady Melania Trump and other administration officials were onstage. The suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, was arrested and charged with the attempted assassination of President Trump.
This is the second time the former FBI director has been indicted during Trump’s second term. In September, he was charged with two criminal counts based on allegations that he lied to Congress while providing testimony on the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Comey denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the case was part of the “costs to standing up to Donald Trump.”
The charges were later thrown out after the judge in the case ruled that the prosecutor who filed the indictment had not been legally appointed to the position.
Comey’s daughter Maurene has also become entangled in a legal case against the Trump administration. A former federal prosecutor, she has sued the administration, arguing that she was the target of political retribution when she was fired last year. On Tuesday, a judge ruled that her case could move forward.
President Trump and Comey in 2017.
(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Comey has a long, fraught history with the president. He was serving as FBI director when Trump first took office in 2017. Trump fired him just four months into his first term amid an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged coordination with Russia.
In the years since, Trump has been relentlessly critical of the former FBI director, who he accuses of being a key source of the alleged “Russia hoax” against him. In social media posts reacting to the first indictment against Comey, Trump referred to him as a “total slimeball,” a “dirty cop” and a “destroyer of lives.”
Comey is one of several of Trump’s perceived foes who have been targeted by the Department of Justice since he returned to the White House. That list includes former CIA Director John Brennan, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, former CNN anchor Don Lemon, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
