The Trump Justice Department has charged former FBI Director James Comey again, following the dismissal of his first indictment due to the illegal appointment of the prosecutor who secured it.
The new indictment involves allegations that Comey made threats against President Donald Trump in a May 2025 social media posting of a picture of shells on the beach that spelled out “8647,” a source familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
The number 86 is a slang term whose definitions include “to reject” or “to get rid of,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which also notes that it has more recently been used as a term meaning “to kill.” Trump is the 47th U.S. president.
After backlash online from Trump allies, Comey deleted the post and said in a subsequent Instagram post later that May that he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.” He added that he “oppose[s] violence of any kind.”
Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director during his first presidential term, pleaded not guilty in October to the first indictment, which charged him with lying to and obstructing Congress in connection with his 2020 Senate testimony. The charges centered on his testimony over whether he authorized anyone at the bureau to be an anonymous source in news reports related to an FBI investigation. The indictment accused him of falsely stating that he hadn’t granted such authorization.
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The new indictment is not public yet.
The previous indictment was dismissed due to what a judge found to be the illegal installation of Lindsey Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia. In November, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the charges Halligan brought against both Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two prominent critics of the president. Trump had called for action against Comey and James, after which Halligan secured the charges against them over the objection of career prosecutors. Halligan has since left her post. The administration previously launched an appeal of that disqualification ruling.
Another Comey, his daughter Maurene, made headlines earlier Tuesday regarding a separate legal development. A federal judge ruled her lawsuit accusing the Justice Department of firing her for political reasons can move forward.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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