Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
A grand jury indicted James Comey a second time, charging a seashell photo as a threat to kill the president
The April 28, 2026 indictment charges that an Instagram photo of shells arranged to read “8647” was a knowing threat. His first indictment, for false statements to the Senate, was dismissed in November 2025.
What happened
In May 2025, James Comey posted an Instagram photo of seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to read “8647.” Trump allies read “86” as slang for getting rid of someone and “47” as Trump, the 47th president. Donald Trump Jr. accused Comey of calling for his father’s murder. Comey deleted the post and said he had assumed it was a political message.
On April 28, 2026, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned a two-count indictment charging the photo as a knowing threat to kill or harm the president. The case is United States v. Comey, No. 4:26-cr-00016. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges and said the department prosecutes such threats several times a year. Comey denied the charges and said he would “vindicate the First Amendment.”
It was Comey’s second indictment in 7 months. A September 2025 false-statements case brought by interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was dismissed without prejudice in November 2025. Judge Cameron Currie found Halligan was unlawfully appointed.
Who benefited
Trump fired Comey in 2017 while Comey was leading the Russia investigation and has demanded his prosecution since. The Justice Department under Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, delivered a prosecution of a named presidential enemy after the first attempt collapsed.
Who wanted something
Trump had publicly pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi in September 2025 to charge Comey and others. Blanche announced this indictment as acting attorney general. Halligan secured the first indictment after career prosecutors declined. Blanche’s confirmation was pending in the Senate, with Republican senators citing his targeting of individuals as a reason to oppose him.
Who lost out
Comey faces a second federal prosecution, this time for a deleted photograph. Anyone who criticizes the president in ambiguous terms is exposed to a threat statute applied to a political message. The norm that the Justice Department does not pursue the president’s personal adversaries after a first case fails on legal grounds was set aside.
Why it matters
The government re-indicted a former FBI director on a theory most First Amendment lawyers consider untenable, after its first case against him was thrown out because the prosecutor was unlawfully installed. The department has tried again under a different prosecutor and a different statute.
Sources NPRCourtListener (primary)