While speaking with NBC’s Meet The Press on Sunday, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that the federal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey goes beyond the infamous “86 47” beach photo.
Host Kristen Welker questioned Blanche about the case, which centers on a May 2025 Instagram post by Comey showing seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47.” Prosecutors have described the post as a threat against President Donald Trump, the 47th president, with prosecutors interpreting “86” as slang for eliminating or killing someone.
Blanche emphasized that the indictment resulted from a broader investigation rather than the social media post alone. He stated that career prosecutors, FBI agents, and Secret Service agents in North Carolina conducted an 11-month probe before a grand jury returned the indictment on April 28.
Blanche further noted that the grand jury, not the Department of Justice or himself personally, decided to indict. He indicated that additional evidence, including witnesses, documents, and other materials, supported the charges, though he declined to disclose specifics due to grand jury rules.
“Rest assured that the career assistant United States attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case, didn’t just look at the Instagram post to walk away. That’s why you saw an indictment last week, not withstanding the fact that it was last May that the post was made,” Blanche said.
“So I am not permitted to get into the details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know. But rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted.”
Blanche also noted that similar phrasing appears in commercial products and other communications but does not automatically lead to charges. This, he emphasized, stressed the importance of an investigation and treating each case on an individual basis.
The indictment, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, charges Comey with two felony counts: making threats to harm President Trump and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce via the Instagram post.
The post, which Comey later deleted, included a caption describing the seashell arrangement as something he encountered during a beach walk. Comey has publicly maintained that the image was innocent and not intended to convey any threat.
The investigation began shortly after the May 2025 post and involved coordination among federal agencies. A federal grand jury reviewed the evidence and issued the indictment late last month.
In a prior, unrelated federal case brought in September 2025 in the Eastern District of Virginia, Comey was charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding related to his earlier testimony about the FBI’s 2016 Russia investigation. He pleaded not guilty to those charges, and the case was ultimately tossed on a technicality.
