James Comey surrenders to authorities after DoJ indictment [View all]
Last edited Wed Apr 29, 2026, 02:45 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: The Guardian
Wed 29 Apr 2026 14.35 EDT
First published on Wed 29 Apr 2026 13.15 EDT
James Comey made a brief appearance in court on Wednesday after the justice department indicted him over a social media post in a renewed bid to prosecute one of Donald Trump’s longtime political adversaries. The former FBI director was indicted in North Carolina on Tuesday over a photograph he posted on social media last year of seashells arranged in the numbers “86 47” – a message the justice department says amounts to a threat against Trump – the 47th US president.
The indictment, made public on Tuesday, says that a reasonable person “would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States”. Comey responded in a video of himself speaking to the camera on his personal Substack the same day to declare: “I am still innocent.”
“Well, they’re back,” Comey said in the Tuesday video. “This time, about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won’t be the end of it, but nothing has changed with me. I am still innocent. I am still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary. So, let’s go.”
Comey has said he assumed the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence against the Republican president, and removed the post as soon as he saw some people were interpreting it that way. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote in a subsequent post on Instagram.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/29/james-comey-second-indictment-surrender
Article updated.
Original article -
First published on Wed 29 Apr 2026 13.15 EDT
James Comey surrendered to authorities on Wednesday at the eastern district of Virginia after the justice department indicted him this week for a second time.
The former FBI director was indicted in North Carolina on Tuesday because of a post he made on social media last year of seashells arranged into the numbers “86 47” which the Department of Justice has called a threat against Donald Trump.
The number 86 can be used as shorthand for getting rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president.
Comey subsequently deleted the post and apologized, saying he didn’t realize the numbers were associated with violence. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote on Instagram.
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