Comey Indicted for Social-Media Post

by Sharon Rondeau

(Apr. 28, 2026) — Just after 4:30 p.m. EDT, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche opened a press conference announcing the second indictment of former FBI Director James Comey in North Carolina for allegedly threatening the life of President Donald Trump in an Instagram post nearly a year ago.

The U.S. Justice Department stated the first charge as a “violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871, alleging that James Comey, 65, knowingly and willfully made a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.”

The second count alleges a “violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), that James Comey consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communication would be viewed as threatening violence, and that he knowingly transmitted a communication in interstate commerce that contained a threat to injure the person of another, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to a person.”

At the time, Comey claimed to have encountered the seashell formation consisting of the numbers “8647” while walking on a North Carolina beach.

Later that day, Comey removed the post, stating he had not realized it could be connoted as a message encouraging “violence.”

Trump fired Comey in 2017 just months after he began serving his first presidential term.

An initial but unrelated indictment of Comey did not go to trial, as his claim that then-Interim U.S. Attorney General Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia, who charged him, was serving unconstitutionally was upheld by U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie last fall. Consequently, the previous case against Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and one claiming mortgage fraud on the part of New York Attorney General Letitia James were subsequently dismissed.

A “true bill” was issued Tuesday by a grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina, Blanche said, resulting in the indictment. He compared the new case against Comey to arrests and “guilty” pleas recently taken by two other individuals, one in North Carolina and another in Florida, for threatening Joe Biden and Trump, respectively.

Blanche’s introductory remarks were followed by those from U.S. Attorney W. Ellis Boyle and current FBI Director Kash Patel.

Along with the indictment, an arrest warrant was issued by the grand jury, Blanche said when he retook the podium.

In a video titled “Seashells” posted Tuesday afternoon, Comey denied the new charges.

“Well, they’re back, this time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago,” he said, “and this won’t be the end of it. But nothing has changed with me. I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let’s go…”