Comey team: Trump threat charges are ‘preposterous’
James Comey’s defense filed a new james comey motion dismiss package late Tuesday seeking to throw out charges that he threatened President Donald Trump with a May 2025 Instagram seashell photo reading “86 47,” calling the mafia-kill theory preposterous and alleging misleading warrants plus unlawful surveillance. The filings cast the April indictment as political retribution against a longtime Trump critic, according to CBS News and related reporting.
Key Takeaways
- Comey’s lawyers seek dismissal for vindictive and selective prosecution and ask to suppress digital-search evidence.
- They allege warrant affidavits omitted key facts and distorted statements about whether “86” meant violence.
- Ex-prosecutor John Gleeson called the “86” equals mafia “kill” claim “preposterous.”
- The defense says Secret Service agents conducted warrantless electronic surveillance at a DOJ official’s request.
- A Monday motion separately argued the seashell post is protected speech, not a true threat.
What does the james comey motion dismiss allege?
In motions filed late Tuesday, Comey’s attorneys urged U.S. District Judge Louise W. Flanagan to dismiss the North Carolina case charging him with threatening to kill the president. They argue Trump’s animus drove a selective prosecution after an earlier Virginia indictment accusing Comey of lying to Congress was tossed because the prosecutor was illegally appointed.
“Ample objective evidence … establishes that the President’s animus toward Mr. Comey led to this vindictive and selective prosecution,” his lawyers wrote, as reported by the Associated Press via The Boston Globe. The Justice Department has denied Comey was singled out for his politics. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said Trump did not direct the indictment.
Why call the government’s “86” theory preposterous?
Prosecutors say the May 2025 Instagram photo of seashells arranged as “86 47” was a true threat, treating “86” as violent slang and “47” as a nod to Trump, the 47th president. Comey deleted the post and said he opposed violence, arguing the slogan commonly means “get rid of” or “eject.”
Defense filings say FBI checks of case databases and the John Gambino file turned up no “86” link to Comey, and Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano did not recall discussing the term with him. Gravano suggested contacting longtime prosecutor John Gleeson, who swore in an affidavit that in thousands of hours of mafia work he never heard “86” used as jargon for murder. “The claim that ’86’ is mafia jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous,” Gleeson wrote.
Lawyers also say warrant affidavits leaned on an estranged associate whose first reaction was restaurant slang, then shifted after a Rudy Giuliani podcast—context they say investigators omitted or distorted.
Did DOJ order illegal surveillance of Comey?
Comey’s team alleges the Secret Service conducted “illegal electronic surveillance” without a warrant at a high-level Justice Department official’s request after the post, including location “pinging” as he traveled from North Carolina toward Virginia. Internal messages cited in an affidavit by attorney Patrick Fitzgerald show skepticism: one official wrote life was not in immediate danger and “legally it was a bad idea to ping the phone.”
CBS News reported Comey is set for arraignment Sept. 30 in New Bern, North Carolina; Judge Flanagan has set an Oct. 21 trial date, per Politico. For more BlasterPost coverage across emerging stories, see our Future Tech & AI Wonders hub.