Former FBI director James Comey indicted over seashell photo officials say threatened Trump

Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted in an investigation over a social media photo showing seashells arranged on a beach, which officials say constituted a threat against Donald Trump.

Mr Comey has been charged with threatening the life of the president and making a threat in interstate commerce, according to the indictment. An arrest warrant has been issued.

The post on Mr Comey's Instagram page in May 2025 showed seashells arranged to show the numbers: "86 47."

In the US, the number 86 is a term commonly used in restaurants when an item is sold out and can informally mean to "cancel" or "get rid of", while 47 refers to Mr Trump, the 47th US president.

Mr Comey deleted the post, saying he assumed the arrangement of shells he saw while on a walk along the beach was a "political message".

"I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It ‌never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down," he said.

In an interview with Fox News in May, Mr Trump accused Mr Comey of knowing "exactly what that meant".

"A child knows what that meant," he said. "If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear."

Responding to the indictment in a video posted on his Substack on Tuesday, Mr Comey said: "I am still innocent, I am still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let's go."

In a statement, Patrick Fitzgerald, attorney for Mr Comey, said the 65-year-old "vigorously denies the charges" and added that they "look forward to vindicating" him.

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Second indictment against Comey

The US president's administration previously indicted Mr Comey on charges alleging he lied to Congress in 2020, but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled the prosecutor behind the original case, a former lawyer for Mr Trump, was not lawfully appointed.

Mr Comey was the director of the FBI when Mr Trump took office in 2017.

He had been appointed by then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, and previously served as a senior Justice Department official in former president George W Bush's Republican administration.

Mr Comey had a strained relationship with Mr Trump, having resisted a request by the US president at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to him. The FBI director was unnerved by the request and documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Mr Trump would go on to fire Mr Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Mr Trump's presidential campaign.

The inquiry, which was later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would find while Russia interfered with the 2016 election and Mr Trump's team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove criminal collaboration.

(c) Sky News 2026: Former FBI director James Comey indicted over seashell photo officials say threatened Trump