The Justice Department said in a court filing that its senior leadership wasn’t involved in the decision to criminally charge former FBI Director James Comey for posting a picture of seashells arranged to say “8647” on social media in 2025.
The picture drew scrutiny as the number 86 often refers to tossing or getting rid of something, and Donald Trump is the 47th president. Prosecutors say the post amounts to a threat on Trump’s life, which Comey has denied.
Distancing Attorney General Todd Blanche from the decision making, the Tuesday night filing says it was Ellis Boyle, the US attorney in Eastern North Carolina, who was behind bringing the indictment against one of Trump’s top foes. In disclosing the approach by Boyle, the Justice Department hopes to convince a judge that Comey wasn’t targeted vindictively by prosecutors because of the president’s animus toward him.
“Comey attempts to portray the decision to charge him as resulting from a directive by the President and/or the Attorney General. That is simply false,” prosecutors wrote in the court filing in the eastern North Carolina federal court on Tuesday. “U.S. Attorney Boyle looked into the matter upon assuming his position and made the decision without any influence from the Attorney General, much less the President, whatsoever.”
Still, the Justice Department says in the filing Boyle told the attorney general that prosecutors would seek the Comey indictment over the seashell post on the day before a grand jury approved it this spring.
“Indeed, Boyle did not even discuss the charging decision with the Attorney General until the day before presenting the matter to the grand jury, and did so then so that the Attorney General would be aware of the possibility of publicity relating to the indictment, as the Justice Manual instructs,” the prosecutors wrote.
Blanche — who was then the Justice Department’s No. 2 leader, as deputy attorney general — and FBI Director Kash Patel publicly supported Boyle charging Comey in North Carolina, with both giving press remarks the day of the indictment in Washington alongside Boyle.
The seashell indictment in April was the second time Comey had been indicted by this Justice Department. A previous case, alleging he lied to Congress, was dismissed by a judge last year after court proceedings unearthed issues with the Virginia-based US attorney’s approach.
Comey has argued that both cases were the result of a Justice Department acting unfairly to bend to the president’s political wishes.
This story is developing and will be updated.
