World
James Comey Turns Himself In After Indictment Over Viral 'Trump Threat' Post
Former FBI Director James Comey turned himself in to federal authorities Wednesday after a grand jury indicted him on charges that he threatened to kill President Trump through a cryptic social media post last year.
Comey surrendered at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, near his home, ahead of an initial court appearance. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The Instagram Post at the Center of It All
The charges stem from a May 15, 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared an image of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47.” Comey deleted the post shortly after publishing it.
In restaurant slang, “86” means to discard something or cut off service to someone. Trump is the 47th president of the United States. Prosecutors say the combination was a threat on the president’s life.
Comey pushed back on that interpretation at the time, telling MSNBC he had nothing to do with creating the arrangement and simply shared it because he found it interesting.
“I said, ‘That’s really clever,'” he told the network. “I posted it on my Instagram account and thought nothing more of it, until I heard through here that people were saying it was some sort of a call for assassination, which is crazy.”
The Charges
A North Carolina grand jury indicted Comey on Tuesday on two counts. The first accuses him of “knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States.” The second charges him with “knowingly and willfully transmitting an interstate commerce communication that contained a threat to kill the president of the United States.”
Comey was defiant after the indictment came down. “I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So let’s go,” he said.
A Second Indictment
This is not the first time Comey has faced federal charges under the Trump administration. In September, he was indicted on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction, accused of lying to Congress about authorizing media leaks related to investigations into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia and into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
A federal judge threw out that case in November, ruling that the acting US attorney who brought the charges had been unlawfully appointed.
Who Is James Comey?
Comey was born in Yonkers and raised in New Jersey. Before leading the FBI, he served as a federal prosecutor, deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush and Manhattan US attorney, where he made headlines in 2003 by indicting Martha Stewart for insider trading.
As deputy AG, he handled the day-to-day running of the Justice Department and drew national attention when he flat-out refused to sign off on a warrantless wiretapping program, setting off a dramatic face-off with White House lawyers that became one of the more talked-about moments of the Bush era.
Trump showed Comey the door in May 2017, citing frustration over the Russia investigation. Robert Mueller’s special counsel probe later wrapped up without finding any conspiracy between Trump and Russia. Comey never really went away quietly after that, regularly taking shots at Trump in public and through the media, which kept the bad blood between the two very much alive.
