Federal Grand Jury Indicts Former FBI Director Comey on 2 Counts Over '8647' Seashell Photo Alleged as Threat to Trump

A federal grand jury returned a 2-count indictment against former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly threatening to harm President Donald Trump via a 2025 Instagram photo of seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to read “8647” (slang “86” meaning “to get rid of,” “47” referencing Trump as the 47th president). Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges at a Tuesday press conference. Comey’s attorney Patrick Fitzgerald responded: “We will contest these charges in the courtroom and look forward to vindicating Mr. Comey and the First Amendment.”

This is the second DOJ indictment of Comey in the second Trump term. The first — false statements and obstruction tied to 2020 Senate testimony — was dismissed in November 2025 by a federal judge who ruled that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan’s appointment was unlawful. After dismissal, DOJ tried to refile twice; two grand juries refused. The seashell-photo case is the third DOJ attempt against Comey, who is also on Patel’s Government Gangsters enemies list. The indictment lands one week after the SPLC indictment (April 21), four days after DOJ dropped the Powell probe (April 24), and the day after Cole Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump (April 27). The Patel-Bondi-Blanche-Pirro DOJ now uses charging-and-dropping decisions as a standard personnel-management tool against critics, regulators, and now retired federal officials whose social-media activity is recharacterized as criminal threats. See also 2026-04-21–doj-fbi-indict-southern-poverty-law-center-eleven-counts, 2026-04-24–doj-drops-powell-probe-clears-warsh-fed-confirmation, and 2026-04-20–digenova-appointed-brennan-probe-medetis-long-removed.