The Memo: Thin case for Comey’s prosecution stirs unease even among some in GOP

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey over a photograph of seashells is stirring unease even among some in the GOP — and sparking outrage among Democrats and liberals.

The most vehement critics object to what they see as the latest in a long line of attempts by the president to use the DOJ to go after his perceived adversaries.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday evening that the charges against Comey “are just surreal and absurd.”

“This is an act of political vendetta, and the Department of Justice has been turned into an instrument of political revenge against President Trump’s perceived foes,” Raskin said.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday: “This administration has clearly dissolved the independence of the Department of Justice, and they are turning it into an arm of political retribution.”

The administration pushes back against such arguments.

In an interview with Major Garrett of CBS News, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche denied that the pursuit of an indictment against Comey had been motivated or influenced by the president. 

“Absolutely, positively not,” Blanche said, adding, “This is something that has been investigated for nearly a year now, and the results of that investigation is that a grand jury returned an indictment.”

But there are two problems, one centered on the political context and the other specific to the case.

Firstly, Trump’s enmity toward Comey is long-standing and crystal clear — a fact which makes it plausible that the former FBI director could claim he is the victim of vindictive prosecution.

A search of an online database of the president’s posts, both on Truth Social and the social platform X, turns up more than 250 mentions of Comey’s name.

Among them, the president has branded the former FBI director a “dirty cop,” “a destroyer of lives” and “one of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to.”

Furthermore, a now-infamous Truth Social post last year, written as if it may have been intended as a direct message to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, showed the president complaining about a lack of prosecutorial action against Comey, as well as others with whom Trump has tangled, including Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D).

Earlier indictments of Comey and James were dismissed by a judge, who ruled that a prosecutor had been illegally appointed. Bondi was, in the end, forced out of her position by Trump.

The second problem for Trump’s prosecutors is the apparent thinness of the case against the former FBI director. 

This challenge is so acute that even Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), a fervent Trump backer, told reporters at the Capitol the case was “a stretch.”

“You can indict anyone for anything,” Nehls said in a video posted by former CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who now works with the progressive MeidasTouch Network. “Is it criminal? If you can get a jury to convict him.”

Separately, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters that, unless there was more to the case against Comey than the DOJ had so far revealed, “We’re going to regret this because we’re setting a fairly low bar.”

Former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), speaking with this column, said, “It strikes me as a rather frivolous case. It’s rather stunning that charges are being made on that basis.”

Dent added: “As a Republican, I am particularly bothered by this, because the Democrats will have the White House someday. And would we want them using the Department of Justice to attack Republican former officials or others considered to be ‘enemies’ of the Democratic administration? What is the argument going to be?”

Law professor Jonathan Turley, usually a Comey critic, wrote an op-ed for Fox News in which he asserted that the indictment was “facially unconstitutional absent some unknown new facts.”

The DOJ says that Comey meant the message spelled out by the seashells — “86 47” — as a threat to Trump’s life. Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon that “86” was a “mob term” meaning to kill someone.

Trump is the 47th president and the Merriam-Webster dictionary gives five possible meanings of the phrase “86,” one of which is “to reject, discontinue or get rid of (something).”

But Comey says he was not aware of this and deleted the post when he became aware that some ascribed a violent implication to it. He did not make explicit reference to Trump in his post, and the dictionary includes a number of more innocuous meanings to “86,” including “to refuse to serve (a customer).”

The indictment against Comey, which runs to a scant two pages, charges him with threatening to take the life of, or inflict harm upon, the president and with transmitting a threat to kill the president. 

The indictment makes no allusion to evidence beyond the photograph.

FBI Director Kash Patel, however, said at a Tuesday news conference that the matter had been “investigated over the past nine, 10, 11 months. These cases take time. Our investigators work methodically.”

If Comey were to be convicted on both charges, he would face a maximum of 10 years in prison.

The former FBI director made his initial court appearance on Wednesday. He did not speak with reporters. 

In a video released Tuesday, soon after news of the indictment broke, Comey said: “I’m still innocent, I’m still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary — so let’s go.”

For the moment, even academic experts look askance at the prosecution.

“It’s obviously lawfare,” Todd Belt, the director of the political management program at George Washington University, told this column. “This is the president trying to go after people and continue his parade of retribution. It’s nothing other than that.”

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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