James Comey Seeks Dismissal of Charges Over Seashells Post

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.’ According to Comey’s legal team, the post did not constitute a ‘true threat’ as claimed by the Department of Justice, which alleged that ‘86’ amounted to calls for the assassination of the 47th president. The lawyers argue that ‘86’ simply means ‘get rid of’ or ‘eject’ and has no violent connotation except in the most uncommon usages. They claim 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.

The Justice Department, however, says that Comey’s post should put him in prison for at least 10 years with a maximum criminal fine of $250,000 if convicted. Comey is expected to plead not guilty when he is arraigned on September 30, and if the case proceeds, he is expected to face a jury trial scheduled to begin on October 21. His lawyers argue that the case against him ‘targets protected speech at the heart of the First Amendment’ and that the Justice Department has ‘singled out’ Comey in an effort to ‘prosecute one of the president’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition.’ 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. Trump responded to Comey’s post on his Truth Social, stating that ‘86’ is a mob term for ‘kill him’ and that ’86 47 means ‘kill President Trump.’ He also raged on Fox News that Comey ‘knew exactly what that meant,’ adding that ‘a child knows what that meant.’ Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the term ‘86’ as ‘to throw out’ or ‘get rid of’ and derives from a 1930s slang term for ‘sold out.’ Comey has long been a target of the president and his allies following his investigation into whether Trump’s associates coordinated with Russian figures to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Comey subsequently deleted the image of the seashells and explained in a separate post that he had posted a picture of ‘some shells I saw on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.’ He added that ‘I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,’ and that ‘it never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.’