DOJ Maintains Comey Seashell Post Threat to Trump

The Justice Department is defending its prosecution of James Comey over a 2025 Instagram post of seashells arranged to read “86 47,” arguing that an objective viewer could interpret it as a threat to President Trump. Prosecutors say the post was a coded message meaning “kill” or “get rid of” the president, while Comey contends the image was protected speech and not a true threat. Comey’s lawyers accuse investigators of misleading judges and withholding facts in an effort to prove intent to threaten, and they maintain that the post’s meaning is not violent. The DOJ and Comey’s defense clash over who should decide the “true threats” question, with prosecutors urging the case to be decided by the jury rather than pretrial dismissal. Comey has stated he did not realize the arrangement could be read as a violent threat and deleted the post, while prosecutors emphasize the broader context of threats to public figures. The discourse also touches on how the term “86” is used, its ordinary meanings, and how it has been interpreted in this indictment and related coverage.