Trump Administration Indicts Comey Over Seashell Photo

" The indictment from a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina asserts the image constituted a serious expression of intent to do harm to the president. Officials said investigators gathered additional evidence during the 11 months between the May 2025 post and the charging decision.

Comey said Monday that the case reflects the president's fixation on critics. He told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that his family had grown accustomed to repercussions from his public criticism, including his daughter losing her job as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and his son-in-law resigning as a prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Donald Trump has a bottomless desire to gain revenge against those who criticized him," Comey said in the interview. He added that he plans to keep speaking out, citing his grandchildren and a desire for them to know his actions during this period.

Comey maintained he is innocent of any threat and described the president as obsessed with him. He warned of the risk that the public becomes numb to what critics call the weaponization of the Justice Department. "Even I can feel it, 'Oh, the second time, whatever,'" Comey said.

" The photo, which Comey later deleted, showed shells on a beach near his North Carolina property. He has said he and his wife initially thought the arrangement spelled out an address before recognizing it as a political message. His wife, who had restaurant experience, identified the slang meaning of "86" as discarding or getting rid of something.

Comey's legal team plans to seek dismissal, arguing the case represents selective and vindictive prosecution. They intend to make arguments similar to those used after a prior indictment that was later invalidated. Legal experts across the political spectrum described the case as weak.

They noted that "86" has multiple everyday meanings, particularly in the restaurant industry where it means to remove an item from a menu. Sarah Krissoff, a former federal prosecutor now at the law firm Cozen O'Connor, said current Supreme Court precedent requires prosecutors to prove both that a true threat existed and that the defendant intended to make one.

She added that the "absurdity" of the charges may encourage a judge to dismiss the indictment early. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has referred to a "body of evidence" beyond the photo but has not disclosed details, citing grand jury secrecy.

Trump has publicly called for Comey's prosecution.

A previous case brought by a former aide on charges of lying to Congress was thrown out after a judge ruled the prosecutor had been improperly appointed. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest indictment. Officials have described the seashell case as going beyond the single social media post.

Comey said there is a cost to speaking up in the current environment but that he will not stay silent. He expressed concern that repeated actions of this type could normalize behavior once considered abnormal. >"There’s a cost to speaking up in this strange era, awful era we’re in now.

weapons to Taiwan. Trump also indicated he would raise the case of jailed Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai during the conversation. Separately, Trump suggested the federal government could move to approve some forms of 7-OH, a compound derived from the kratom plant.

The FDA had warned last year that natural opioids in kratom were being turned into harmful products. " Kratom is used by some as a recreational drug or unapproved pain treatment and can cause addiction and overdose, though it is considered less dangerous than synthetic opioids like fentanyl.