{"id":2596308,"date":"2026-04-28T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/james-comey-indicted-for-86-47-threat-against-trump\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:17:49","slug":"james-comey-indicted-for-86-47-threat-against-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/james-comey-indicted-for-86-47-threat-against-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"James Comey Indicted For &#8217;86 47&#8242; &#8216;Threat&#8217; Against Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjames-comey-indicted-for-86-47-threat-against-trump%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2596308&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former FBI Director James comey has been indicted by the Justice Department in connection with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-this-average-american-is-voting-for-donald-trump\/\" title=\"Why This Average American Is Voting for Donald ...\">social media post<\/a> from May 2025 that allegedly served as a coded threat to President Donald Trump. Prosecutors say the post-depicting seashells arranged to form \u201c86 47\u201d-meant a threat to kill or harm the president and was transmitted in interstate and foreign commerce. Comey faces two federal counts under <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >statutes prohibiting threats<\/a> against the president and transmitting those threats through commerce. The article also notes Trump\u2019s response, Comey\u2019s explanation that he posted the image as a beach sighting without intending a political message, and the timing of the indictment shortly after another attempted assassination was thwarted.It further describes this as comey\u2019s second indictment, following earlier cases related to alleged obstruction and lying to Congress, and mentions that prior prosecutions were dismissed by a federal judge over appointment issues.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey has been indicted by the Justice Department on charges related to an apparent threat, \u201c86 47,\u201d posted to social media in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Comey is charged with \u201cknowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-charges-facing-derek-chauvin-and-what-it-will-take-to-convict-him\/\" title=\"The Charges Facing Derek Chauvin, And What It Will Take To Convict Him\">inflict bodily harm<\/a> upon, the President of the United States and knowingly and willfully transmitting a communication in interstate and foreign commerce that contained a threat to kill President Donald Trump,\u201d\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/james-comey-indicted-again-new-justice-department-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">indictment<\/a> states.<\/p>\n<p>Comey\u2019s post, which depicted seashells on a beach formed into the \u201c86 47\u201d message, has been broadly viewed as a not-so-subtle <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/05\/16\/former-fbi-boss-james-comey-appears-to-call-for-trumps-assassination-in-8647-post\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">threat to President Donald Trump<\/a>, and part of a larger <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/05\/16\/from-schumers-whirlwind-threat-to-comeys-8647-assassination-prep-is-the-lefts-mo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left-wing campaign of assassination prep<\/a> against Trump and other conservatives, meant to desensitize the American public to violence against the political right.<\/p>\n<p>The number \u201c86\u201d is slang for to get rid of something, and Trump is the 47th president.<\/p>\n<p>Comey faces two counts, one under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Title 18, United States Code, Section 871(a)<\/a>, which makes it illegal to make public threats against the president, and another under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/18\/875\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Title 18, United States Code, Section 875(c)<\/a>, a statute against the transmission of the threat to interstate or foreign commerce.<\/p>\n<p>Each individually carry the potential for fines, a maximum of five years imprisonment, or both.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment comes just days after another would-be assassin attempted to kill the president and as many White House officials as possible, but was ultimately thwarted by unknown circumstances after a major <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/04\/26\/the-secret-service-failed-trump-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Secret Service security failure<\/a> resulted in shots being fired, but none actually hitting the assailant. The would-be assassin was ultimately arrested.<\/p>\n<p>When Comey posted the picture of the seashells, he captioned it, \u201cCool shell formation on my beach walk.\u201d Afterward, then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/04\/28\/politics\/justice-department-indicts-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> he would be investigated for his call \u201cfor the assassination\u201d of the president.<\/p>\n<p>Comey also removed the post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/james-comey-indicted-again-new-justice-department-probe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stating<\/a>, \u201cI posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn\u2019t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump responded to Comey afterward, saying, \u201cHe knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  \u201cIf you\u2019re the FBI director, and you don\u2019t know what that meant, that meant \u2018assassination,\u2019 and it says it loud and clear,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n<p>The Tuesday indictment is from the Eastern District of North Carolina, and Comey claimed to have seen the shells on the beach in North Carolina when initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/04\/28\/politics\/justice-department-indicts-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interviewed<\/a> by the Secret Service.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment is Comey\u2019s second after he was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia for <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/25\/russia-hoax-conspirator-james-comey-indicted-for-obstruction-lying-to-congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">obstruction and lying to Congress<\/a>, related to his handling and perpetuation of the Russia collusion hoax.<\/p>\n<p>A rogue federal judge <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/11\/24\/judge-says-us-attorney-lindsey-halligan-cant-prosecute-comey-because-trump-appointed-her\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissed<\/a> that case, as well as another indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, D-N.Y., regarding an alleged <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/11\/21\/documents-letitia-james-lied-to-bank-insurer-in-alleged-mortgage-fraud-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mortgage fraud scheme<\/a>. In both cases, the Clinton-appointed Judge Cameron Currie claimed that Trump-appointed prosecutor Lindsay Halligan was unlawfully appointed.<\/p>\n<p>Comey was fired in Trump\u2019s first year in office during his first term for his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s private email server and his role as a key driver of the Russia collusion hoax.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comey indicted for social media threat \u201c86 47\u201d involving Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2596309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-28-161321.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32319,15074,51149,34340,78759],"class_list":["post-2596308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-donald-trump","tag-indictment","tag-james-comey","tag-michael-flynn","tag-threat-allegations"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-28-161321.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2596308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2596312,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2596308\/revisions\/2596312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2596309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2596308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2596308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2596308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}