Comey Indicted on Threat Charge Over Social Media Post; Former Fauci Adviser Charged With Records Violations

A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on a charge of knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of and inflict bodily harm upon President Trump. The indictment, returned Tuesday, centers on a May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged to form the numbers 8647 on a North Carolina beach.

The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

The post was removed after public reaction. The number 86 is a term used in restaurants to indicate removal of an item or a person, as illustrated by a 2018 incident in which staff at a Virginia restaurant wrote "86 Sarah Huckabee Sanders" on a note to the morning manager after the then-press secretary was asked to leave.

A similar numerical reference appeared in October 2020 when an 8645 pin was visible behind Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during a Zoom interview with Meet the Press.

Comey was dismissed by President Trump in 2017 while overseeing an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The Justice Department had previously sought to indict Comey in a separate matter tied to his 2020 congressional testimony, but a federal judge dismissed those charges in November after ruling that the prosecutor was unlawfully appointed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the current case at a Tuesday press conference, stating: "You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent ... it's appropriate."

Separately, the Department of Justice indicted Dr. David Morens, a former senior adviser to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2006 through 2022 and an adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, on charges of participating in a scheme to conceal federal records related to COVID-19 research grants.