READ: James Comey Indictment Reveals He’s Been Charged With ‘A Serious Expression Of an Intent to Do Harm to the President’

FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2016, before the House Oversight Committee to explain his agency’s recommendation to not prosecute Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential candidate, over her private email setup during her time as secretary of state, . (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with threatening the life of President Donald Trump in a newly released charging document.

Comey was indicted for the second time in less than a year by the Trump administration on Tuesday. This second indictment was brought in the Eastern District of North Carolina, and a court clerk issued an arrest warrant for Comey.

The charging documents address a controversial social media post by Comey in which he arranged seashells to display the numbers “86 47,” interpreted as a threat to remove or kill (“86”) the 47th president, Trump.

“On or about May 15, 2025, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the defendant, JAMES BRIEN COMEY JR, did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States, in that he publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site Instagram which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out ’86 47′, which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States,” the document reads.

He is also charged with “knowingly and willfully” transmitting “in interstate and foreign commerce” this Instagram “communication that contained a threat to kill the President.”

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, FBI director Kash Patel said this case has been investigated “over the past 9, 10, 11 months.”

Comey was first indicted last September for lying to Congress, but the case was dismissed within a few months when a federal judge ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who brought the charges, had not been legally appointed.

“Mr. Comey now moves to dismiss the indictment on the ground that Ms. Halligan, the sole prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury, was unlawfully appointed in violation of 28 U.S.C. § 546 and the Constitution’s Appointments Clause,” Distruct Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote. “As explained below, I agree with Mr. Comey that the Attorney General’s attempt to install Ms. Halligan as Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid.”

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