The Daily Fuckup

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted former FBI Director James Comey on April 28, 2026, charging him with making threats against President Donald Trump. The Justice Department says the case centers on an Instagram post Comey made on May 15, 2025, showing seashells arranged to read “86 47.” In the indictment, prosecutors allege that a reasonable recipient familiar with the circumstances would understand the image as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president. Comey has not been convicted, and the charges are only allegations at this stage. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-grand-jury-indicts-former-fbi-director-james-comey-threats-harm-president-trump?utm_source=openai))

The filing includes two counts. One cites 18 U.S.C. § 871, which covers threats against the president. The other cites 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), which criminalizes transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. In the Justice Department’s account, the alleged threat is tied to the meaning prosecutors say the post would carry in context, not to any separate act of violence. That distinction matters: the indictment is an accusation about how the image should be read, not a judicial finding that it was a true threat. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-grand-jury-indicts-former-fbi-director-james-comey-threats-harm-president-trump?utm_source=openai))

The chronology is simple. The Instagram post was dated May 15, 2025. The indictment came nearly a year later, on April 28, 2026. That gap matters because the case is being built around a single piece of social-media conduct, with the government arguing that the numbers in the post communicated more than political commentary. Comey’s defense, if it presses the issue, is expected to argue the post was ambiguous and not a criminal threat. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-grand-jury-indicts-former-fbi-director-james-comey-threats-harm-president-trump?utm_source=openai))

The case lands in a familiar political zone because Comey has been one of Trump’s most persistent antagonists. But the public record at this point is narrower than the rhetoric around it. The provable fact is that a grand jury returned an indictment on two threat counts. The rest — motive, intent, and whether the post crossed the line into criminal conduct — now belongs to the courtroom. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-grand-jury-indicts-former-fbi-director-james-comey-threats-harm-president-trump?utm_source=openai))