The charges center on a controversial May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers "86 47."

According to CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter (who ran to CNN to leak the news), the indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. It comes after the Justice Department's first case against Comey-filed in September 2025 and charging him with making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding related to his 2020 Senate testimony-was dismissed late last year. A federal judge ruled that the interim U.S. Attorney who brought those charges had been improperly appointed without Senate confirmation.

So - the guy acts as Obama and Hillary Clinton's hatchet man to frame Trump and they're going after the seashell thing... right. 

The Seashell Post at the Center of the New Case

The new indictment revives scrutiny of a social media post that ignited intense backlash last spring. On May 15, 2025, Comey posted a photo on Instagram showing seashells lined up to spell "86 47," captioned simply: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."

The numbers quickly drew sharp criticism from Trump allies. "86" is longstanding slang-commonly used in restaurants to mean "get rid of," "remove," or "toss out"-while "47" is widely understood as shorthand for President Donald Trump, the 47th president. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the time called the post a call for Trump's assassination and announced a Secret Service investigation. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard publicly suggested Comey should be "put behind bars."

Comey deleted the post the same day and issued an apology on social media, writing that he had assumed the shells represented "a political message" but "didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence." He added: "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down." He later told interviewers that he and his wife had simply noticed the formation during a beach walk in North Carolina and saw it as a quirky, possibly restaurant-themed joke.