The US Department of Justice reported that a North Carolina grand jury indicted the former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with two federal charges for alleged threats against the life or integrity of the US president. This accusation, the second Comey faces in a matter of months, is related to a social media post of a cryptic numerical message.

First modification: 04/29/2026 - 01:15Last modification: 04/29/2026 - 03:41

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A photograph with seashells, spread in such a way on a beach in North Carolina that they formed the numbers "86" and "47". That post on Instagram during his vacation last May is what puts James Comey back in the dock.

The Department of Justice indicated, in a press conference, that a grand jury indicted the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with two federal charges for alleged death threats against President Donald Trump.

The accusation arises from how Comey's post on his social networks was interpreted. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "86" is a colloquial expression that can mean "discard", "eliminate" or "get rid of" someone, while "47" is the presidential number in American history occupied by Trump in his second term.

On this basis, Comey is accused of "knowingly and willfully" threatening to "take the life and cause physical harm" to Trump, as well as the transmission of an interstate communication with threatening content.

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Without providing evidence to support that Comey was aware that his post would pose a threat, the prosecution suggested that a "reasonable recipient familiar with the circumstances would interpret" the message as an intent to cause harm.

In announcing the indictment, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to elaborate on what evidence the government would have, but said: "How do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself, to the extent that it's relevant. And that's how we'll prove intent in this case."

At the time, Comey defended that he intended to send a political message, not incitement, and deleted the publication shortly after. In his reply, he claimed not to have realized "that some people associate those numbers with violence" and expressed his opposition "to violence of any kind, so I deleted the publication."

Trump, however, did not believe him. In an interview with 'Fox News', he accused Comey of knowing "exactly what that meant."

"Even a child knows what that meant," said the American president. "If you are the director of the FBI and you don't know what that meant, it meant murder. And he makes it very clear."

A Department of Justice at Trump's request

The indictment, the second Comey faces in a matter of months, fuels the perception that the Justice Department is accelerating its efforts to pursue and prosecute the president's political opponents.

Even more so when Todd Blanche seeks to be ratified as attorney general, a position he holds on an interim basis after the dismissal of Pam Bondi, whose departure was linked in part to not having advanced cases against the president's detractors or not having done so quickly enough.

Blanche, a Trump loyalist who was previously his personal lawyer, attempted to refute the allegations and argued that the case against the former FBI chief was similar to other cases of threats that the Justice Department often brings against people less known in the public sphere.

"While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is of the same type that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and prosecute," he insisted.

Strikingly, however, since Blanche took the top job in April, the Justice Department has filed criminal charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that monitors extremist groups; has released a report on alleged misconduct in past prosecutions of anti-abortion activists and has charged a former National Institutes of Health official for allegedly concealing records related to Covid-19 pandemic research grants.

Comey, again in the crosshairs

This Tuesday's is the second indictment against Comey in a matter of months. Last September, the Justice Department had accused him of lying and obstructing Congress in his 2020 testimony about whether he had authorized inside information to be provided to a journalist about an FBI investigation.

At the time, Comey denied any wrongdoing and the case was later dismissed after a judge concluded that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan had been illegally appointed to the case.

The fact that the Justice Department launched a new case against the former FBI director just months after that first indictment was separated could expose the government to accusations of vindictive persecution.

Read alsoKeys to the annulment of the cases against James Comey and Letitia James after investigating Trump

This new case could also be challenged on grounds of freedom of expression, since the First Amendment of the United States Constitution provides strong protections for political statements, even those that may be considered offensive.

Appointed by Democrat Barack Obama, Comey was the director of the FBI when Trump assumed the Presidency in 2017 and, after months of a tense relationship in which the president even asked him at a private dinner to swear personal loyalty, he removed him from office.

That dismissal was especially controversial because Comey was then leading the investigation into the so-called "Russian plot," which investigated whether Trump's 2016 campaign had colluded with Russia to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

Since then, Comey became a staunch enemy for Trump, to the point that the former FBI director had anticipated this new accusation, after the dismissal of the first accusation against him. "Donald Trump will probably come for me again," he said in a video posted on his Instagram last November.

With AP, Reuters and EFE

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