Comey was also charged with a count related to threatening criminal conduct across state lines through online or other interstate communications.
Former FBI Director James Comey speaks to reporters after giving a private deposition to the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 7, 2018. Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The Department of Justice on April 28 announced that former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on charges relating to threatening to kill or harm President Donald Trump.
“Today, a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned an indictment against James Comey on two counts,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at an April 28 news conference.
Blanche announced that Comey had been charged with one count of making threats against the president for a social media post he made in 2025 that was interpreted as a call for violence against Trump. The charge is a criminal offense under 18 U.S. Code Section 871 that carries penalties ranging from a fine to five years in federal prison.
Comey was also charged with a count related to threatening criminal conduct across state lines through online or other interstate communications. The related offense under 18 U.S. Code Section 875 carries the same penalties as the initial charge.
“While this case is unique and this indictment stands out because of the name of the defendant, his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate, and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute,” Blanche said.
Comey has maintained that he is innocent of any intentional wrongdoing in the case.
The indictment is related to a social media post Comey made last year.
The post showed the numbers “8647” written in seashells on a beach. To “86” is to get rid of, discard, or remove. In other contexts, it has been used as a euphemism for killing someone.
The post led some administration officials and congressional Republicans to accuse Comey of calling for violence against Trump, the 47th president.
“You cannot threaten to kill the president of the United States, full stop,” Blanche said as he left the news conference.
After receiving backlash for the post, Comey deleted it, saying that he had not understood that any violent meaning was associated with the phrase and emphasizing that he opposes violence in all forms.
He was interviewed by the Secret Service in May 2025 about the incident. The Justice Department initially chose not to take further action on the matter; however, Republican officials have revisited the incident in recent months.
Trump, in a Fox News interview in May 2025, rejected Comey’s claims that he did not know that the post could be interpreted as having a violent meaning, accusing Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant.”
“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear.”
The “8647” and “8646” themes have been used as political slogans and on T-shirts during the presidencies of Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, the 46th president.
Comey, a longtime critic of Trump, had previously been charged in September with making false statements and obstructing Congress. However, a federal judge dismissed that case in November, ruling that the prosecutor responsible for the indictment, Lindsey Halligan, had not been lawfully appointed.
Comey had posted a video to Instagram saying that he was appreciative of the judge’s ruling, labeling the case as “a prosecution based on malevolence and incompetence, and a reflection of what the Department of Justice has become under Donald Trump.”
Comey was FBI director when Trump took office in 2017. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and previously served as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s administration.