What Happened

Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted by the Trump Department of Justice, charged with threatening the president of the United States.

The alleged weapon: a photo of seashells on Instagram.

The seashells spelled out "86 47." "86" is slang for eliminating something or someone — originally restaurant jargon. "47" refers to Trump as the 47th president. The DOJ says that combination constitutes a "serious expression of an intent to do harm" to President Trump.

Comey took the post down and apologized for it in the fall of 2024. The indictment came 11 months later.

Blanche Claims More Evidence Exists — But Won't Say What

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went on NBC's Meet the Press and was pressed by host Kristen Welker on whether this case is political retaliation over a social media post.

Blanche's response: the process speaks for itself.

"Rest assured that it's not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted," Blanche told Welker, according to The Independent. He pointed to "career assistant United States attorneys in North Carolina, career FBI agents, career Secret Service agents" who investigated for approximately 11 months.

"You prove intent with witnesses. You prove intent with documents, with materials," Blanche said, as reported by Yahoo News. "This is about a body of evidence that the grand jury collected over a series of about 11 months."

He refused to specify what any of that evidence is.

The DOJ has the legal right to withhold evidence before trial. But it also means the public has no way to evaluate whether this case is legitimate or a political maneuver.

Comey's Media Strategy

Comey appeared on the same Meet the Press broadcast and offered his own deflection.

When Welker asked about Blanche's claim of an 11-month evidence collection, Comey said: "I don't talk about the case because the federal court rules require you not. I would urge the acting attorney general to bone up on the rules."

He's right about prosecutorial ethics — prosecutors shouldn't be trying cases on television.

But Comey is also conducting a media tour. He appeared on national television, described himself as "an awkward, nerdy dad" on Instagram, and compared the seashell post to a Kamala Harris endorsement he'd seen on a beach. Both men are working the cameras while invoking court rules when convenient.

What the Coverage Is Missing

Left-leaning outlets are framing this as political persecution, and they may be correct, but they're reaching that conclusion without knowing what the 11-month investigation produced.

Right-leaning outlets are accepting Blanche's claims at face value. "Body of evidence collected over 11 months" is a statement, not evidence. It deserves scrutiny regardless of the defendant.

The Independent noted that even some Republicans don't expect this indictment to succeed. Legal experts across multiple outlets agree the case is weak if it rests solely on the Instagram post.

The unanswered question: What is the other evidence?

Without that information public, every outlet is speculating.

A Pattern Worth Noting

This is Comey's second indictment from the Trump DOJ.

The first — charging him with making false statements in connection with investigations into Trump and Hillary Clinton — was dismissed by a federal judge. Not on the merits, but because the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was found to have been unlawfully appointed to her position, according to Yahoo News reporting.

The first case never reached trial because the DOJ failed to properly appoint its own prosecutor.

Now comes a second case built on a deleted Instagram post that Comey apologized for.

The DOJ has the right to prosecute real threats against the president. But two indictments against the same person with zero convictions, based on a seashell photo, is a pattern worth examining regardless of how one views Comey.

Comey is not sympathetic — he torpedoed the 2016 election with his last-minute Clinton email announcement, oversaw a deeply flawed Russia investigation, and has spent years claiming moral authority he hasn't earned. But Comey can be both a compromised public figure and the target of a politically motivated prosecution.

The Broader Implication

If the DOJ can indict a former FBI director over a beach photo — even a provocative one — using 11 months of secret evidence it won't disclose, that prosecutorial power extends to anyone.

The courtroom will determine whether there's a legitimate case here. Until then, both the DOJ and Comey should let the process proceed.