Former FBI Director James Comey filed new motions late Tuesday in his effort to toss out federal fees accusing him of threatening President Trump’s by posting a photograph of seashells organized to type the numbers “86 47,” casting the indictment as the newest salvo in a yearslong effort to punish him for criticizing the president — and accusing the federal government of misconduct.
The submitting — accompanied by a 76-page-long spreadsheet itemizing out the entire insults Mr. Trump and Comey have hurled at one another during the last 9 years — argues the indictment needs to be dismissed on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution. Comey’s attorneys additionally requested the court docket to suppress proof from warrants for Comey’s accounts, and to pressure the federal government to reveal the grand jury proceedings that led to his indictment.
“Right here, the federal government has singled out Mr. Comey for prosecution as a result of President Trump harbors animus towards Mr. Comey and his protected speech, and it has performed so in direct response to the President’s urgings and Mr. Comey’s profitable movement to dismiss a previous indictment,” the previous FBI chief’s attorneys argued.
The Justice Division has denied that Comey is being singled out as a consequence of his political opinions.
Within the movement to dismiss, Comey additionally accused the U.S. Secret Service of conducting “unlawful digital surveillance of Mr. Comey on the request of a high-level DOJ official” and not using a warrant shortly after Comey’s spring 2025 Instagram put up.
Filings submitted by his attorneys present discussions between Secret Service workers about “pinging” Comey’s cellphone to trace its location, which some personnel seen skeptically, and a request for Verizon to supply location data as a consequence of an “emergency” state of affairs. On the time, Comey was set to journey from North Carolina to his Virginia residence.
“At the moment we didn’t consider that anybody’s life was in rapid hazard and legally it was a nasty thought to ping the cellphone,” an unnamed Secret Service official mentioned in a single message.
These particulars on the surveillance — together with different allegations concerning the authorities’s scramble to analyze Comey — are from an affidavit filed by Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, who cited “substantial discovery offered by the Authorities.”
Comey’s authorized crew can be asking for a Franks listening to, a court docket continuing the place the decide overseeing his case would decide if the federal government misled or lied to the Justice of the Peace decide who accredited search warrants. On this case, the warrants are associated to digital accounts belonging to the previous FBI director and his spouse.
The affidavits on the middle of these search warrants, Comey’s authorized crew mentioned, “omitted details identified to the affiant,” and “misled the magistrates with materials falsehoods, bizarrely insinuating that Mr. Comey’s lawyer (a former U.S. Legal professional) and Mr. Comey’s spouse had obstructed the federal government’s investigation.”
Comey’s attorneys wrote that the warrant functions cited an individual who knew and spoke to Comey’s spouse. In interviews with federal legislation enforcement, Tuesday’s court docket filings mentioned, that witness “admitted that that they had been estranged from Mr. Comey and had not spoken to him for not less than two years,” and “made clear their intense bias” in opposition to Comey.
Once more citing the proof reviewed by Fitzgerald, Comey’s authorized crew mentioned the witness informed legislation enforcement in each interviews that their first response to the “86 47” put up was that it was associated to restaurant slang that an institution was out of a menu merchandise, till they listened to an episode of Rudy Giuliani’s podcast.
Then, the FBI in September 2025 searched its database for any references to the time period “86” in instances that Comey labored on, which an FBI staffer mentioned produced “inconclusive outcomes,” in accordance with messages filed in court docket by Comey’s attorneys.
A separate search of the FBI’s file within the case of mob boss John Gambino, whom Comey prosecuted within the Nineteen Nineties, additionally turned up no references to the time period. After Comey was indicted, Fitzgerald wrote, an FBI agent and a federal prosecutor additionally interviewed Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, a former member of the Gambino crime household, and requested if Comey ever mentioned the time period “86” with him. Gravano doubted he would have introduced up the time period with Comey, although he did say it could actually imply “to kill.”
The brand new slate of court docket filings got here at some point after Comey requested U.S. District Decide Louise W. Flanagan, who’s overseeing his case, to dismiss the indictment in opposition to him on separate grounds. He argued the case in opposition to him targets speech protected by the First Modification, and that the “86 47” phrase on the coronary heart of the indictment just isn’t a real menace in opposition to Mr. Trump.
Comey was indicted final yr in a distinct case that accused him of mendacity to Congress in 2020. He and his authorized crew moved to dismiss that case on related grounds, however the Virginia federal decide overseeing the case by no means dominated on the difficulty. As a substitute, the decide dismissed it on the grounds that the prosecutor who secured the indictment in opposition to him was unconstitutionally appointed to her function as interim U.S. lawyer.
Comey is ready to be arraigned on the 2 fees of threatening to kill the president on Sept. 30 in New Bern, North Carolina.
A Division of Justice spokesperson informed CBS Information, “A North Carolina grand jury indicted Comey, and he’ll have his day in court docket like another defendant.”
CBS Information has additionally reached out to the U.S. Secret Service and Comey’s authorized crew for touch upon Tuesday’s filings.
The bout of felony fees in opposition to Comey comply with a yearslong feud between the president and the previous FBI chief, relationship again to when Mr. Trump fired Comey throughout his first time period in 2017. Since then, Comey has castigated Mr. Trump and known as him “morally unfit” to be president, whereas Mr. Trump has known as Comey a “soiled cop” and mused about prosecuting him.
In Could 2025, Comey posted on Instagram a photograph of seashells on a seaside arrayed to type the numbers “86 47.” He did not make his that means clear, however “eighty-six” usually means “eject” or “eliminate,” and Mr. Trump is the forty seventh president.
Mr. Trump and his allies accused Comey of threatening the president’s life, which Comey strongly denied, saying he got here throughout the shells and assumed they have been a “political message.” He deleted the put up, saying he “oppose[s] violence of any form.”
The Secret Service shortly launched an investigation, and Comey was interviewed by brokers, CBS Information has beforehand reported. The matter remained out of the general public eye for almost a yr after that, till Appearing Legal professional Common Todd Blanche unveiled fees in opposition to Comey in April.
To be able to get an indictment tossed for selective prosecution, a defendant wants to indicate that they have been charged for a discriminatory motive and that “equally located” folks have not been prosecuted for a similar conduct. To point out vindictive prosecution, a defendant wants to indicate that they have been prosecuted solely out of animus or to punish them for exercising a authorized proper. Courts are usually skeptical of those claims.
As proof, Comey’s authorized crew famous that huge quantities of merchandise with the message “86 47” or “86 46” — referring to former President Joe Biden — is obtainable on the market on-line, and the federal government has not taken related steps to prosecute the sellers.
In addition they pointed to Mr. Trump’s historical past of “private assaults and calls to retaliate in opposition to Mr. Comey via felony prosecution.” They recommended that the Justice Division pursued fees in opposition to Comey for threatening Mr. Trump “based mostly on political expediency” after their earlier indictment for mendacity to Congress was tossed out.
And Comey’s attorneys shared emails displaying that on the day of Comey’s Secret Service interview, an official on the company who was touring on Air Power One with Mr. Trump and his crew requested for updates, saying he was “getting LOTS of questions.”
Blanche has denied that Comey was prosecuted for political causes, telling CBS Information earlier this yr that the case was spearheaded by “native prosecutors” in North Carolina.
Requested in a separate CBS Information interview if Mr. Trump directed the indictment, Blanche mentioned: “After all not, completely, positively not.”
“If anyone on this nation thinks — particularly given what occurred over the previous couple of years with respect to President Trump — that it’s okay for anyone to threaten the president of america … after which have the media or others say, nicely that is not critical, then we’ve a much bigger downside than I even imagined on this nation,” Blanche mentioned.
