On Tuesday, U.S. law enforcement officials announced a new criminal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, who is now facing accusations of willfully threatening the life of sitting President Donald Trump. This legal action marks the second time Comey has been charged in recent months, coming five months after a separate federal case against him was thrown out by a judge on procedural grounds.
The current charges stem from an Instagram post Comey shared in May last year, where he published an image of seashells arranged to spell out the numbers “86 47”. In comments on the post at the time, Trump, who claims to be the 47th U.S. president, argued that “86” is widely recognized slang for assassinate or kill, framing the image as a deliberate threat against his life. The grand jury indictment returned by a North Carolina jury echoes this framing, stating that the numerical sequence constituted a “serious expression of an intent to harm the President of the United States.”
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to the president who was appointed to the role earlier this month following the ousting of previous Attorney General Pam Bondi, detailed the charges Tuesday. Comey faces two counts: one count of willful threat against the president’s life and bodily integrity, and a second count of transmitting an interstate threat. Each offense carries a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
“I think it’s fair to say that threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime,” Blanche said in a statement following the indictment. “Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice.” Blanche pushed back against claims of political motivation, noting that while many of the current department investigations target people the president has clashed with, pursuing such cases is a legitimate presidential duty.
Comey has long pushed back on the accusation, issuing an apology immediately after sharing the post. He claimed that he was unaware of the violent association some groups attach to the number 86, and that he opposes all forms of political violence. He removed the post from his Instagram account hours after it was published, he has confirmed.
This indictment arrives against a tense backdrop of escalating political violence: just three days prior, authorities arrested a suspect accused of attempting to assassinate Trump at a Washington D.C. dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association. It also coincides with a court ruling that allows Comey’s daughter, former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, to move forward with a wrongful termination lawsuit claiming she was fired from her role for political reasons related to her father’s conflicts with Trump.
The first case against Comey, brought in September, charged him with making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation. Critics widely characterized that prosecution as political retribution by Trump against a high-profile political opponent. In November, a federal judge dismissed the entire case, ruling that the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney who brought the charges had been unlawfully appointed to the role. That same ruling also threw out a separate case against another top Trump critic, New York Attorney General Letitia James. Another former Trump administration official and outspoken critic, ex-national security advisor John Bolton, has also been indicted in recent months on charges related to alleged mishandling of classified information.
Democratic lawmakers have been quick to denounce the new indictment, framing it as another example of the president weaponizing the Department of Justice to target political opponents. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin called the charges “baseless” and dismissed the action as “petty retribution.” “This is another case of a weaponized Justice Department lashing out on behalf of a vengeful president,” Durbin said in an official statement.
Comey’s long-running conflict with Trump dates back to 2017, when Trump fired Comey from his role as FBI director amid the agency’s investigation into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russian government actors seeking to influence the election outcome. Comey was originally appointed to lead the FBI by former Democratic President Barack Obama in 2013.
The September charges against Comey came just days after Trump publicly pressured then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue legal action against Comey and other perceived political opponents, a break from longstanding norms that bar White House interference in Justice Department casework. Bondi was fired from her post earlier this month, with multiple reports indicating that her failure to secure indictments against Trump’s political critics was a key factor in her dismissal.
Since taking office for his second term, Trump has implemented a series of punitive measures against individuals and institutions he views as disloyal or hostile. These actions have included purging dissident government officials, targeting law firms that have represented opponents in legal cases against him, and pulling federal research and education funding from universities that have drawn his criticism.