Justice Department issues arrest warrant for former FBI chief James Comey charging ‘threat’ against Trump using seashells

The Justice Department issued an arrest warrant for former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, claiming in a new indictment that the staunch Donald Trump critic made a threat against the president — albeit one written in sand using seashells.

The matter stems from a photo he posted to social media of seashells arranged on a North Carolina beach to read, “86 47,” the first numbers indicating a slang term for getting rid of someone or something and the second presumed to be a reference to Trump, who became the 47th president of the United States in his second term.

Justice Department prosecutors wrote in an indictment that the message was “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president of the United States.”

Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service in May after Trump officials claimed he was, through the posting, pushing for the assassination of Trump. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down.”

Having emerged as a critic of the president’s in the time since leaving the FBI, Comey first earned Trump’s enmity in 2016 and 2017 when his agency began an investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russian officials.

Trump has harbored anger against Comey for years, and since taking office in 2025, has directed the Department of Justice to begin a campaign of criminal prosecutions against Comey and others who have challenged him in similar ways, like New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“This won’t be the end of it. But nothing has changed. I’m still innocent; I’m still not afraid. I still believe in an independent justice system,” Comey said in a video post to his Substack on Tuesday after the charges were announced.

Attorney General Pam Bondi headed up that effort at the agency before her firing earlier this month. Tuesday’s news is apparent confirmation that her replacement, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, will continue in that vein.

Last year, attorneys for the DOJ working out of the Eastern District of Virginia brought charges against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress pertaining to whether he authorized leaks to the press about the investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign for president and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State.

He denied the charges, which never went to trial. Comey denied those accusations at the time, and declined to comment to CNN on Tuesday regarding the new charges.

A judge tossed the case against him instead last fall, ruling that former White House staffer Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed to her role overseeing the Eastern District, making her actions as a prosecutor unlawful.

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” Comey said in a statement last year upon his initial indictment. “We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”

“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice,” he added.

Comey’s initial indictment was preceded by Trump publicly calling for the Department of Justice to take action against him.

In a Truth Social post, the president urged Pam Bondi to begin issuing indictments, an unprecedented step for an American president and one that led to resignations among senior prosecutors at the Eastern District and other offices called upon by the DOJ to make the president’s dreams a reality. The Wall Street Journal later reported the post was meant as a direct message.

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,’” Trump posted in September of 2025.

Comey would go on to be indicted for allegedly making false statements to Congress the same month.

Law enforcement officials confirmed as far back as May of last year that Comey was interviewed by Secret Service agents over his seashells post. The length of time between the original post and the indictment suggests that the agency initially did not see the case as worth pursuing, but eventually changed their minds.

Blanche contended at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that the investigation into Comey and the decision to issue charges was not a sudden decision.

“On or about May 15 of last year, [James Comey] knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States,” Blanche told a roomful of reporters before facing questions about the strength of the DOJ’s case and the time frame of the indictment itself.

“A lot of these cases… they’re not easy cases,” Blanche said, arguing that Comey’s status as a former FBI director and communications with other lawyers raised barriers that made obtaining his electronic devices a more complicated prospect.

Blanche went on to refuse to answer whether the DOJ had any hard evidence pointing to whether Comey definitively wanted the president to be harmed.

“You cannot threaten to kill the president of the United States. Full stop,” said Blanche.

“Today, federal agents from @SecretService interviewed disgraced former FBI Director Comey regarding a social media post calling for the assassination of President Trump. I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of @POTUS Trump. This is an ongoing investigation,” wrote then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on May 16 of last year. Noem was ousted by Trump from her position as DHS secretary nearly two months ago.

A month after the post was published and deleted the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the former FBI director’s daughter who served as a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She said she wasn’t given a reason for her termination.