DOJ: No Dispute Seashell Post Was Trump Threat

The Department of Justice is vigorously defending its prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, asserting in new court filings that there is "no serious dispute" his 2025 Instagram post of seashells arranged as "8647" could be interpreted as a threat to kill President Donald Trump. In motions filed this week in a federal court in North Carolina, prosecutors argued the image constituted a coded message and questioned Comey’s account that he merely found the shells during a beach walk.

The criminal case centers on a photograph Comey posted on Instagram in May 2025 while on holiday in North Carolina. The image displayed seashells arranged to form the number 8647. Prosecutors allege this was a threat against the 47th president, explaining that "86" is slang for removing or getting rid of something. "There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comeys post could read it to mean Kill President Trump," prosecutors from the Eastern District of North Carolina wrote in their filing.

Comey, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2026 on charges of making a threat against the president and transmitting it across state lines, has consistently denied the...