James Comey — the sanctimonious ex-FBI boss who spent years posturing as America’s moral compass while helping ignite the Trump-Russia circus — is now trying to wriggle out of another courtroom appearance tied to his bizarre “86 47” seashell scandal.
The former bureau chief asked a federal judge in North Carolina to scrap a scheduled hearing, arguing he already made his first appearance in Alexandria, Va., after surrendering to authorities last week on charges tied to an Instagram post prosecutors say threatened President Trump.
Comey’s legal team insisted federal rules allow only one “initial appearance,” telling the court the former FBI director would sign whatever waiver paperwork was needed “to give the Court additional comfort if the Court so desires.” One perp walk is enough, thank you very much.
U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, a George W. Bush appointee, appeared willing to go along with the request — conditionally. She said the North Carolina hearing would be canceled if Comey files the waiver by Friday. Otherwise, he’ll still have to show up.
Even Biden-era holdovers at the Justice Department weren’t objecting. Prosecutors backed the request, according to court filings.
The case stems from the now-infamous social media post Comey uploaded last year while allegedly strolling a North Carolina beach. The image showed seashells arranged into the numbers “86 47.” Comey captioned it: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
Federal prosecutors say the message amounted to a threat against Trump, the 47th president of the United States. In common slang, “86” can mean to toss out, remove — or worse, eliminate. The indictment argues that “a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret [it] as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President.”
Comey quickly deleted the post after backlash exploded online. He later claimed he thought it was merely a “political message” and said he “did not realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”
That explanation raised plenty of eyebrows given Comey’s decades in federal law enforcement and counterintelligence — not exactly the résumé of a guy unfamiliar with coded language and implied threats.
The former FBI chief has not entered a plea but has publicly declared he is “still innocent.”
The charges against him are serious enough: threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. Each count carries up to five years behind bars. Prosecutors would still need to prove Comey “knowingly and willfully” threatened Trump.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has hinted investigators possess more evidence than just the shell photo, saying the case is “not just about” the Instagram post and involved nearly a year of investigative work by the DOJ, FBI and Secret Service.
Naturally, Comey’s allies in legacy media and anti-Trump legal circles are already crying political persecution. Some legal analysts have questioned whether prosecutors can clear the high bar required for a criminal threat case.
But conservatives see something else entirely: another example of elite-Washington rules applying differently depending on who’s in the crosshairs. Had a Trump ally posted “86 46” during the Biden years, cable-news panels would’ve treated it like the opening scene of a Tom Clancy thriller.
This also isn’t Comey’s first rodeo with Trump’s Justice Department. Last year, he was hit with false statements and obstruction charges tied to his 2020 congressional testimony about FBI leaks. That case was later tossed over questions surrounding the prosecutor’s appointment, though the administration appealed the ruling.
The irony here could choke a horse. The same FBI director who helped fuel years of political chaos over Trump now finds himself battling federal prosecutors over a cryptic social-media post involving beach shells and internet slang.
