Justice Department opposes dismissal of Comey case over '86 47' seashell post
Rights & JusticeWell-covered
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The Facts
- The Justice Department filed motions Tuesday opposing Comey's bid to dismiss the charges against him.
- Prosecutors wrote there is "no serious dispute" that an objective viewer could read Comey's post to mean "Kill President Trump."
- Comey posted an Instagram photo in May 2025 showing seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to read "86 47."
- A North Carolina grand jury indicted Comey in April on counts of threatening the president and transmitting a threat.
- Prosecutors cited Comey's novel "FDR Drive," about a right-wing podcaster whose coded messages lead followers to target his enemies.
- Prosecutors suggested Comey made the post to generate attention for his then-forthcoming novel.
- Comey denies the post was a threat and argues he is being vindictively and selectively prosecuted for criticizing Trump.
- US attorney Ellis Boyle said in an affidavit that no one in the administration pressured him to seek the indictment.
- The judge has not ruled on the dismissal motions, and the case is scheduled for trial in October.
Context
What does "86 47" mean?
To "86" something is restaurant and bar slang for removing or getting rid of it, and in some uses it can refer to killing Washington Post,theepochtimes.com. Trump is the 47th president Washington Post,NBC News. Comey's defense says the phrase means removal from office, while prosecutors argue an objective viewer could read it as a call to kill the president Forbes,HuffPost,Guardian.
Why are prosecutors citing a novel Comey wrote?
Comey's 2025 legal thriller "FDR Drive" features a right-wing media figure who uses coded language to suggest his followers act against his enemies U.S. News & World R…,NBC News,HuffPost. Prosecutors say the book was released days after the seashell post and argue the parallel shows Comey understood how coded messages would be received Reuters,NBC News.
What is the judge being asked to decide?
Comey's lawyers asked the court to throw out the case, arguing the post was not a "true threat" and that the prosecution was politically motivated Forbes,Hill. Prosecutors counter that whether the post was a true threat is a question for the jury, not for the judge to resolve before trial Hill.
What did the filings say about Trump's role?
The Justice Department said senior leadership, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, was not involved and that Boyle independently decided to seek the indictment CNN International,Washington Examiner. In the same filings, prosecutors argued that a president directing his subordinates is a constitutional "feature, not a bug" Raw Story,Forbes.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both reads accept that the government must carry the burden — the threat reading of "86 47" and the vindictive-prosecution claim each have to be proved, not asserted.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about prosecutors building a threat case out of a critic's own novel, or about a grand jury indictment that a defendant's political-persecution claim can't preempt.
How left and right read it
The burden here belongs to the government, and it has to be carried with proof of a real threat — not with literary criticism. Prosecutors say there is "no serious dispute" that an objective viewer could read seashells spelling "86 47" as "Kill President Trump," yet they reach for Comey's own novel about a podcaster whose coded messages target enemies, and even suggest he posted it to promote the book. As NBC News noted, "the filing compares Comey to his book's villain." A prosecution that leans on a defendant's fiction, against a critic of the president who says he is being singled out, should be dismissed.
“While Comey is a former prosecutor and Trump has been repeatedly accused of inspiring death threats and harassment of people he's complained about online, the filing compares Comey to his book's villain.” — NBC News
A criminal charge should be answered on its merits, not waved away because the defendant says the charge itself is political. A grand jury indicted Comey on counts of threatening the president, and prosecutors argue there is "no serious dispute" that an objective viewer could read "86 47" as "Kill President Trump" — a reading they tie to his own novel about coded messages that send followers after enemies. The Washington Examiner notes the department's filings say the U.S. attorney independently decided to seek the indictment; if that stands, the vindictive-prosecution claim is an assertion, and assertions get tested, not credited.
“In more than 100 pages of court filings added to the docket late Tuesday, the department said Ellis Boyle, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, independently decided to seek the indictment.” — Washington Examiner
The receipts — all 48 sources
Wire services (5)
Independent coverage (43)
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