Trump Administration Secures New Indictment Against Comey Over Seashell Social Media Post

The Trump administration has obtained a new indictment against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, marking yet another chapter in what the article describes as the Justice Department's "tortured efforts" to satisfy President Trump's demands for criminal charges against his longtime adversary. This latest move comes after a previous indictment against Comey was thrown out by a judge in November.

The new case centers on a deceptively simple incident: while vacationing on the North Carolina coast nearly a year ago, Comey posted a photograph on social media showing seashells arranged to spell "86 47"—combining slang meaning "dismiss or remove" with an apparent reference to Trump as the country's 47th president. The administration and Trump's family interpreted "86" as code for killing, characterizing the beach-posted message as an assassination threat. When Comey learned of the uproar, he deleted the post and told the Secret Service (who had tracked his location as he traveled home to Northern Virginia) that he had no knowledge of any violent connotation and opposed violence entirely.

What makes this prosecutorial persistence remarkable is the sheer institutional chaos it reflects. The original September indictment came after Trump fired the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia—a career prosecutor who had determined the evidence didn't support charges. Trump replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide with no prosecutorial experience, who quickly secured the Comey indictment. Both that case and a related indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James were dismissed in November when a judge ruled that Halligan's appointment violated federal law. Despite this judicial setback and evidence being ruled off-limits to prosecutors, the administration continues its pursuit, with the new indictment arriving just weeks after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi over perceived ineffectiveness in cases against his perceived enemies.