James Comey has blamed Donald Trump's 'bottomless desire to gain revenge' for his second indictment on federal charges related to an alleged threat against the president's life. The former FBI director was charged by the Department of Justice in late April over an Instagram post featuring seashells arranged to read '86 47,' which prosecutors claim was a threat to kill Trump.
Comey had a similar charge dismissed late last year before new acting Attorney General Todd Blanche took over the DOJ. Speaking for the first time since the new charge, Comey told MSNBC that Blanche was prosecuting the case solely to satisfy Trump's revenge plot.
'I think it's just Donald Trump continuing to move through people until he finds those who will literally do whatever he says,' Comey said. 'Maybe he's found that with Mr. Blanche, maybe not.' He added that it was unlikely Blanche could ever fully satisfy Trump's desire for retribution unless Comey was imprisoned.
'Maybe his standards will be too high, as apparently Pam Bondi's were, which is a bit of a shock. And so she's apparently headed for some important private sector job we haven't heard about yet. That may be Mr. Blanche's future,' Comey remarked.
Comey refused to be deterred from speaking out against the president. 'I'm not going to stop criticizing him, because I think that's required if you care about America. And so it will just keep going. If he gets rid of Blanche, he'll try to find someone else. Look at the bottom of every barrel, there are still apples. And so he will find someone to do what he wants to do.'
The former FBI director also slammed Trump for firing his daughter Maurene, despite claims it was over her mishandling of the case against Sean 'Diddy' Combs. 'My daughter was a superstar prosecutor in the southern district of New York and was fired only because she has my last name. That's stupid, that's immoral. That's illegal, in my view,' he said.
Comey expressed bewilderment at his situation. 'It's crazy that I'm in a place where I'm 65 years old, and I actually find it a little bit humorous to have this obsession by this 80 year old man with me, I don't know, and I am an honest person,' he said.
The Justice Department asserts that Comey 'knowingly and willfully' made threats against the president's life and transmitted a threat via social media. 'You cannot threaten to kill the President of the United States. Full stop,' said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at a press conference.
The indictment relates to an Instagram post Comey made last May showing seashells arranged to spell '8647,' a phrase adopted by Trump's critics that the president and his allies have characterized as a call for his assassination. The number 86 is slang for removing or getting rid of something, though it can also mean to kill. Trump is the 47th president. Comey posted the photo with the caption: 'Cool shell formation on my beach walk.'
Comey declared his innocence in a video message on Substack. 'I'm still innocent, I'm still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let's go,' he said.
Trump's allies claimed the post called for Trump's assassination. Then-homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said the Secret Service would investigate. Comey later deleted the post the same day, claiming he 'didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.' Secret Service agents conducted an hours-long interview with Comey soon afterward. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the time said he should be 'put behind bars for this' and that she was 'concerned' Trump's life was in danger.
Comey was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia last fall on two counts: making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding, related to his 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony. A federal judge dismissed the indictment in November, ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed.
Blanche's push to indict him comes a month after Trump fired his predecessor, Pam Bondi, for failing to pursue his perceived enemies aggressively enough. Trump accidentally posted a message on Truth Social in September pressuring Bondi to prosecute his political enemies, including Comey. The Justice Department initially dropped the seashells investigation into Comey under Bondi but it was revived in recent months, according to the New York Times.
Blanche, who served as Trump's personal attorney before joining the administration, appears to have led efforts to revive the targeting of Trump's political enemies. He is widely considered a frontrunner to become the president's official nominee for attorney general.
Comey led the FBI's investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, before the president fired him the following year. He remains one of Trump's most vocal critics on network television.
'It's really important that all of us remember, this is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be,' Comey said on Tuesday evening in response to the indictment.
Comey is not the only Trump adversary to face the wrath of the Justice Department in the last year. New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted on bank fraud charges last October but a federal judge dismissed the case. James led the civil fraud against Trump that resulted in a $454 million judgment against him in February 2024. However, the New York state appeals court later overturned the penalty.
The indictment comes just days after alleged gunman Cole Tomas Allen stormed the Washington Correspondents' Dinner in what prosecutors say was a plot to assassinate the president and his top Cabinet members.
