James Comey said Sunday that he has complete faith in the judicial system as he faces an ongoing federal case over a 2025 Instagram post showing seashells spelling out “86 47.” He was indicted last month after prosecutors said the image was a threat against the president’s life.
Comey, speaking on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” declined to address the specifics of the seashell case because it is still active. But he was unmistakable about where he thinks the fight belongs. “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,” he said. “It is of the rule of law, and I believe in it.”
The case has become a test of how far prosecutors can stretch a social media post into a criminal threat. Trump administration officials and the Justice Department say “86” means “to kill,” and President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last month that “86” is “a mob term for kill him.” But restaurant workers told News last month that the term is common in hospitality and usually means the kitchen is out of an item.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this month that the indictment goes beyond the photo itself. “This is not just about a single Instagram post,” Blanche said in a “Meet the Press” interview. “This is about a body of evidence that [prosecutors] collected over the series of about 11 months. That evidence was presented to the grand jury.” He also said he was not permitted to publicly share other evidence in the case.
Comey pushed back on Blanche’s public comments. “He ought not to be talking about it,” he said, while declining to discuss the prosecution in detail. The former FBI director also said he believes the president is trying to use the Justice Department to settle scores. “Donald Trump has a bottomless desire to gain revenge against those who criticized him,” Comey said. “I’m not gonna be quiet; I’m going to continue to speak about what I believe.”
The dispute lands in a legal climate already shaped by a separate round of dismissals last year, when cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were thrown out after a judge found the prosecutor had been wrongly appointed. Comey called that result “absolutely a case of political payback because the president does not like me,” and said the pattern should worry anyone watching the federal government. “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.”
For Comey, the point of the fight is bigger than the seashell photo and the indictment built around it. “The president of the United States cannot use the Justice Department to target people because he wants to retaliate against them,” he said. “We just can’t operate as a republic if that happens.”
