James Comey Denounces Trump’s ‘Bottomless’ Desire for Revenge — and Predicts a Third Indictment

The declaration by the former director of the FBI, James Comey, that “Donald Trump has a bottomless desire to gain revenge against those who criticized him” could double as a preview of his strategy to get the charges against him dismissed. The comments from Mr. Comey came in the course of an interview with Nicole Wallace of the left-leaning MS NOW network. The case against Mr. Comey centers on an Instagram post from last year of seashells on a beach arranged to form the numbers “8647,” which the indictment asserts is “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”Mr. Comey deleted the post within hours, asserting that he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.” He said that he opposes “violence of any kind.” Now, he says that he expects the investigations into him to continue “because that’s what the boss wants. I’m sure that if this case falls apart, they’ll come with something else” — meaning a third indictment. Mr. Comey adds that “This is not normal. This is not who we are.”Mr. Comey’s invocation of “revenge” is a signal that he likely intends to move post haste for a dismissal of these charges on the grounds that they are “selective and vindictive.” While that is usually an exceedingly high bar for a defendant to clear — prosecutors are given wide discretion to decide which cases to bring — Mr. Comey could argue that he is being selectively prosecuted, meaning that other people who have posted similar messages are not facing charges. “There’s a cost to speaking up in this strange era, awful era we’re in now. I’m not gonna be quiet; I’m going to continue to speak about what I believe,” he said, adding that his motivation to do that stems from his “grandchildren, and someday they’ll be old enough to understand his time, and I want them to know what Pop did during this period of time.”The clash between Mr. Trump and the Comeys is intergenerational. In July 2025 Mr. Comey’s daughter, Maurene, was fired as a star prosecutor at the Southern District of New York “pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution.” She is contesting that termination, contending that the decision was “attributable to the hostility between Mr. Trump and her father” or her “perceived political affiliation and beliefs.” Ms. Comey recently won a courtroom victory when a trial judge allowed her to keep her case in federal court rather than shunt it off to an administrative proceeding. Before her firing she led prosecutions of high-profile defendants like Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean “Diddy” Combs. In February she announced that she will join the Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler firm and focus on white collar defense. The indictment against Mr. Comey was handed up by a grand jury in North Carolina, the state where the shells were arranged. The post was captioned “cool shell formation on my beach walk,” before quickly being deleted. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, insists that the Department of Justice possesses a “body of evidence” about Mr. Comey’s alleged intention to harm the president that exceeds what is contained in the indictment.The number “86” can be slang for “to get rid of” or “throw out.” It is thought to have originated in restaurant and soda-counter slang from around a century ago, with one theory contending that the number is a reference to 86 Bedford Street, the address of a long-standing pub, Chumley’s. “47” is a reference to Mr. Trump, America’s 47th president. Mr. Comey contends that he is innocent, though he has not yet entered a formal plea.The indictment of Mr. Comey alleges that “a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances” of the message would understand it to be a threat. The Supreme Court, though, has set a high bar for the government to prove what it calls a “true threat” — meaning speech that does not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment. In Counterman v. Colorado, from 2023, the Nine held that a “true threat” exists when the “defendant had some understanding of his statements’ threatening character.”This is the second case that the Trump administration has brought against Mr. Comey. The first indictment, which was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in September, alleged that Mr. Comey lied to Congress in 2020 about leaks relating to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The charges were dismissed in November after the lead prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was ruled unconstitutionally appointed.While the DOJ has appealed that disqualification, its effort to bring a second case on those same facts is complicated by the expiration of the statute of limitations on the underlying allegations of perjury. That could be why Mr. Blanche elected to pivot toward the accusation that Mr. Comey threatened Mr. Trump. This new indictment was secured in the days following the third assassination attempt against the president, this one at the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25.

James Comey Denounces Trump’s ‘Bottomless’ Desire for Revenge — and Predicts a Third Indictment

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