James Comey said Sunday that he has complete faith in the judicial system as he defends himself in a federal case over a 2025 Instagram post that led to his indictment last month. Speaking on NBC News’ Meet the Press, the former FBI director said he believes the courts will sort out the dispute over whether a photo of seashells forming the numbers “86 47” amounted to a threat against President Donald Trump.
“I have complete faith in our judicial system. It’s the genius of our founders. It’s frankly the only leg of our three-legged stool that is still standing in the U.S. government, but it’s standing tall and straight,” Comey said. “I believe in it.”
The indictment has put a narrow social media post at the center of a larger fight over intent, politics and criminal law. Trump administration officials and the Justice Department say the number “86” means “to kill,” and Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last month that it is “a mob term for kill him.” Restaurant workers, however, told News last month that “86 it” is a common, non-violent expression in hospitality, used to mean remove something or take it off the menu.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an earlier Meet the Press interview, said the case goes beyond the seashell photo. “This is not just about a single Instagram post,” Blanche said. “This is about a body of evidence that prosecutors collected over the series of about 11 months.” He added that he was not “permitted” to publicly share other evidence against Comey in the case.
Comey declined on Sunday to discuss the details of the case because the legal action is ongoing, but he also pushed back on Blanche’s decision to talk about it publicly. “He ought not to be talking about it, I can’t talk about it,” Comey said. He has repeatedly framed the prosecution as political retaliation, saying last week that Donald Trump has “a bottomless desire to gain revenge against those who criticized him” and that he would not stop speaking out. “I’m not gonna be quiet; I’m going to continue to speak about what I believe,” he said.
The clash comes after a separate indictment against Comey and Letitia James was dismissed last year because a judge found the prosecutor in the case was wrongly appointed. Senators Adam Schiff and Mark Kelly have also been targeted in separate cases that did not advance. Comey said last week that the Justice Department cannot go after people such as Schiff, James or Kelly simply because the president dislikes what they say. “The department cannot target people like an Adam Schiff or Letitia James or Sen. Kelly because the president doesn’t Like what they say,” he said. “It just can’t be that way and still have it uphold the rule of law in this country.”
On Sunday, Comey said the dismissed case last year was “absolutely” an act of political payback because Trump does not like him. “We made a motion to have it dismissed as a vindictive prosecution,” he said. “The president of the United States cannot use the Justice Department to target people because he wants to retaliate against them. We just can’t operate as a republic if that happens.”
