Ex-FBI Boss James Comey Indicted Over '8647' Beach Photo That Prosecutors Claim Was Coded Threat To Assassinate Trump

Former FBI director James Comey has been indicted over an Instagram photograph of seashells spelling out '8647', as US prosecutors argue in new court filings that the image amounted to a coded threat to 'Kill President Trump'.

The US Department of Justice has told a federal court there is 'no serious dispute' that an objective viewer could interpret the post as meaning 'Kill President Trump'. Prosecutors made the argument in documents filed this week as they opposed Comey's bid to have the criminal case dismissed.

The dispute centres on a photograph Comey posted on Instagram in May last year while on holiday in North Carolina. The image showed seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers '8647'.

The post quickly prompted a political backlash after Trump's supporters argued that the sequence carried a threatening message aimed at the president. The number '86' is commonly used as slang for removing, rejecting or getting rid of something, while Trump is the 47th president of the United States.

Prosecutors argue that the combination could therefore be understood as '86 47' – or, in their interpretation, 'get rid of' or 'kill' the 47th president.

Comey Denies Coded Threat Over Instagram Post

Comey has consistently rejected that interpretation. He deleted the photograph after the controversy erupted and said he had not realised the numbers could be interpreted as a threat.

'It never occurred to me,' Comey said at the time, adding that he opposed violence of any kind and had therefore removed the post.

Comey was indicted in April by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on charges of making a threat against the US president and transmitting that threat across state lines.

Prosecutors from the Eastern District of North Carolina have described the Instagram post as a 'coded message to his followers' that could mean 'kill' or 'get rid of' Trump.

In a filing last month, Comey's legal team argued that dictionaries, context, legal precedent and common sense all undermine the government's interpretation. His lawyers said a reasonable person viewing the photograph would not understand '86 47' as a threat against Trump, much less as a declaration that Comey intended to harm the president.

The defence has also accused the government of selective and vindictive prosecution, arguing that the case forms part of a broader effort to punish Comey for speech protected by the US Constitution.

Feud Between Trump and Comey Back in Focus

The case has attracted significant political scrutiny because of the long-running and bitter relationship between Comey and Trump.

Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017, amid the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The former FBI chief later became a frequent target of Trump's criticism, while Comey's public statements and memoirs kept their dispute in the spotlight.

The latest prosecution follows a separate criminal case against Comey in 2025. The Justice Department accused him of lying to Congress, but the charges were later dismissed after a judge ruled that the prosecutor handling the case had been unlawfully appointed.

Free Speech, Coded Messages and the Law

The '8647' prosecution now puts free speech and the limits of political expression at the centre of the dispute.

Prosecutors maintain that the post could reasonably be understood as a threat against the president. Comey's lawyers insist it was an ambiguous political expression with no violent meaning.

The court will ultimately have to decide whether the beach photograph crossed the legal line between protected speech and an unlawful threat, a decision that could carry wider implications for how coded language and social media posts involving public officials are treated under US law.