
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two felony counts of threatening the president. The case stems from a May 2025 Instagram post, in which Comey shared a photo of seashells arranged to spell "86 47"—86 being a slang term for getting rid of someone or something, and 47 a reference to Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States.
The case is meritless. It appears to be a vehicle for settling a personal grudge—Comey has been a target of Trump's ire for nearly a decade—and is so deficient that the former FBI director has an unusually strong argument for vindictive prosecution.