The James Comey Indictment Looks Like Vindictive Prosecution |
James Comey
The James Comey Indictment Looks Like Vindictive Prosecution
Such claims are hard for most defendants to prove. But most defendants haven't drawn the public ire of the president.
Joe Lancaster | 4.29.2026 5:45 PM
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(Christy Bowe/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two felony counts of threatening the president. The case stems from a May 2025 Instagram post, in which Comey shared a photo of seashells arranged to spell "86 47"—86 being a slang term for getting rid of someone or something, and 47 a reference to Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States.
The case is meritless. It appears to be a vehicle for settling a personal grudge—Comey has been a target of Trump's ire for nearly a decade—and is so deficient that the former FBI director has an unusually strong argument for vindictive prosecution.
The indictment alleges Comey violated two federal statutes: one against threatening the president and the other against transmitting such a threat "in interstate or foreign commerce." Comey "did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States," according to the federal government. He did so, it says, by posting the seashell photo, "which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States."
That is, to put it mildly, up for debate. The term 86, according to Merriam-Webster, broadly means "to eject, dismiss, or........