James Comey explains why he should not be charged with threatening Trump’s life in new ‘8647’ case filing

Former FBI director James Comey is asking a federal judge to throw out felony charges accusing him of threatening Donald Trump’s life by posting a photograph of seashells spelling out “86 47.”The post from one of Trump’s most prominent critics did not constitute what the Department of Justice is calling a “true threat” after federal prosecutors claimed “86” amounted to calls for the assassination of the 47th president, according to Comey’s legal team.“That claim is contradicted by every possible source of meaning: dictionaries, context, precedent, and common sense,” lawyers wrote in court filings in North Carolina on Monday.

The number “simply means ‘get rid of’ or ‘eject’ and has no violent connotation except in the most uncommon usages,” they wrote.His lawyers argue that Comey merely posted a “well-known political slogan” that has been used in protests and across the internet to express his opposition to the president, a message that the Justice Department says should put Comey in prison for at least 10 years with a maximum criminal fine of $250,000 if convicted.open image in galleryFormer FBI director James Comey posted a photo of seashells spelling out '86 47' on his Instagram in 2025, prompting the Justice Department to indict him for threatening Donald Trump's life (Department of Justice)Nearly a year after Comey’s post, which he took down from Instagram shortly after posting, federal prosecutors charged him with one count of making threats against the president and another count of transmitting those threats through interstate communications.

The post amounts to “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president of the United States,” according to the Justice Department.Comey is expected to plead not guilty when he is arraigned on September 30. If the case sticks, he is expected to face a jury trial scheduled to begin on October 21.

But the case against him “targets protected speech at the heart of the First Amendment,” lawyers for Comey wrote Monday.Despite the widely understood meaning of the phrase “86,” Trump’s Justice Department has “single[d] out” Comey in an effort to “prosecute one of the president’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition,” according to Comey’s legal team.“Even if Mr.

Comey’s post could be plausibly construed as an abstract call to violence (and it cannot), the government’s attempt to prosecute him for that post is antithetical to fundamental First Amendment principles dating to the Founding,” they wrote.“Forcing Mr. Comey to stand trial for a statement opposing the President — even if he is ultimately acquitted — would itself be an unconstitutional punishment of free speech,” his attorneys argued.

“And it would invite future prosecutions by the Executive Branch against perceived political enemies for their opposition to the President,” they wrote. “Government officials have already warned that they plan to target citizens if they ‘copycat’ Mr. Comey’s ‘political statement.’”

open image in galleryLawyers for Comey say the DOJ’s argument that the seashells post amounted to a ‘true threat’ to Trump is is ‘contradicted by every possible source of meaning: dictionaries, context, precedent, and common sense’ (Getty)The motion is not the first Comey has filed to block federal charges against him.Last year, Comey filed similar motions after a similarly politically charged indictment accused him of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.A federal judge dismissed that case after finding that the Trump-appointed prosecutor who brought them was unlawfully appointed.

The “seashells” case was filed weeks after Trump elevated his former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche to Acting Attorney General after the president fired his now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi.Trump reportedly fired Bondi in part because she failed to prosecute his perceived political enemies fast enough.open image in galleryProsecutors indicted Comey shortly after Trump fired elevated Todd Blanche to Acting Attorney General in the wake of firing Pam Bondi (Getty)Last year, Comey posted an image of the seashells with the caption: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Writing on his Truth Social in response, the president declared: “‘86’ is a mob term for ‘kill him.’ They say 86 him! 86 47 means ‘kill President Trump.’

“James Comey, who is a Dirty Cop, one of the worst, knows this full well! EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN!” Trump wrote.

“Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!”He later raged on Fox News that Comey “knew exactly what that meant.”

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination.’ It says that loud and clear.”

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the term as “to throw out” or “get rid of” and derives from a 1930s slang term for “sold out.”Comey — whose firing by Trump during his first term led to the