James Comey faces federal charges over an Instagram image spelling “8647,” a case testing threats law, political speech and prosecutorial independence.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on federal charges tied to an Instagram post showing seashells arranged to spell “8647,” a number sequence that President Donald Trump and his supporters have described as a coded threat.
Prosecutors announced the charges on Tuesday, accusing Comey of knowingly threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. The case, brought by a federal grand jury in North Carolina, has quickly become a flashpoint in the broader fight over political speech, law enforcement independence and Trump’s calls to prosecute prominent adversaries.
Comey has denied wrongdoing. In a Substack video titled “Seashells,” he said: “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.” His lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said Comey would contest the charges and defend his constitutional rights in court.
The indictment centers on a post Comey shared in May last year. The number 47 is widely understood in this context to refer to Trump, who returned to office as the 47th president in January 2025. The dispute is over “86,” a term commonly used in American slang to mean removing, rejecting or throwing something out, including in restaurants when an item is no longer available.
Some of Comey’s critics argue that “86” can carry a violent meaning, an interpretation that is disputed. Comey said at the time that he had not intended the post as a threat. He later deleted it, saying he did not realize some people associated the numbers with violence and that he opposed violence “of any kind.”
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, though sentences in such cases are often lower. Federal prosecutors have also obtained an arrest warrant for Comey, according to the report.
The prosecution comes after an earlier Justice Department case against Comey collapsed last year. In that matter, he was charged in Virginia with making false statements to Congress and obstruction over testimony related to the Russia investigation; a federal judge later dismissed the case after finding that the prosecutor overseeing it had not been lawfully appointed.
Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 to 2017, has long been a target of Trump’s criticism. He oversaw the early stages of the investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia, and Trump fired him in 2017. The special counsel investigation that followed found Russia had made major efforts to influence the election but did not prove a criminal conspiracy involving Trump or his team.
The new case has been assigned to US District Judge Louise Flanagan in North Carolina. The central legal fight is expected to be whether prosecutors can prove Comey intended to threaten the president, or whether the post was a political message protected by the First Amendment.
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