The United States Department of Justice has brought charges against former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly threatening the life of President Donald Trump.

The background to the case is a post Comey published on Instagram in 2025. The image shows shells on a beach arranged in such a way that they form the numbers 86 and 47. The prosecution contends that this constitutes a coded threat against the President. The number 86 is well-known slang in the United States for removing or getting rid of something, while 47 refers to Trump being the 47th President of the United States.

In the indictment, to which the news agency Reuters has had access, it is stated that any reasonable person would interpret the post as indicating that Comey intended to harm the President. Comey himself deleted the post shortly after it was published, and then claimed that he was not aware that the number combination could be associated with violent acts.

Comey himself denies criminal guilt and maintains that he is innocent.

“I am still innocent, I am still unafraid, and I still believe in an independent federal judiciary, so bring it on,” Comey says in a video.

The former FBI chief was also indicted in September last year for having misinformed the Senate Judiciary Committee. That case was, however, dismissed by a judge in November, because the prosecutor who brought the charges was deemed to have been unlawfully appointed.