Justice Department attempts to distance Attorney General Todd Blanche from Comey’s ‘8647’ seashell threat indictment

DOJ Distances Blanche from Comey Seashell Indictment

Qwenews.com – In a Wednesday court filing, the Justice Department attempts to distance Attorney General Todd Blanche from the decision to criminally charge former FBI Director James Comey over a 2025 social-media post showing seashells arranged to spell “8647.” Prosecutors told a federal judge in eastern North Carolina that no senior official in the department ordered or suggested the case be pursued. The number “86” is slang for discarding something, and “47” corresponds to Donald Trump’s ordinal as president; prosecutors characterize the post as a threat on the president’s life, a reading Comey has consistently rejected.

Who Actually Made the Charging Call?

Blanche assumed the acting attorney general role fewer than thirty days before a North Carolina grand jury returned the indictment. At that moment, he was actively courting a permanent nomination from the president. The filing now attributes the initiative entirely to Ellis Boyle, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, who prosecutors say independently decided to seek charges after taking the post.

“No one ordered or even suggested that Boyle pursue the ongoing investigation or seek an indictment,” the filing states.

Sources familiar with internal deliberations told CNN at the time that top officials in Blanche’s office had pressed for a Comey indictment over the seashell image for months. The department’s stated aim in naming Boyle as the sole decision-maker is to persuade the judge that the former director was not singled out out of presidential animus. Prosecutors further noted that Boyle formally briefed the attorney general only the day before the grand jury voted, and did so solely so the AG would be aware of potential publicity, consistent with the Justice Manual’s notification guidance.

Blanche — then serving as deputy attorney general, the department’s No. 2 leader — and FBI Director Kash Patel both publicly endorsed the charging decision, appearing alongside Boyle for press remarks in Washington on the day the indictment was unsealed in April.

The Constitutional and Evidentiary Arguments

The seashell indictment was the second prosecution brought against Comey under this administration. An earlier Virginia case, alleging he lied to Congress, was dismissed by a judge last year after proceedings surfaced problems with how the local U.S. attorney’s office handled the matter. Prosecutors now describe that dismissal as resting on a “technicality” rather than on the merits of the underlying charges.

On the question of presidential influence, the filing takes an expansive view of executive authority. Even assuming evidence showed Trump directed Boyle or Blanche to charge Comey, prosecutors wrote that “the Chief Executive directing his subordinates to exercise core Executive functions is a feature, not a bug, of our constitutional system.” They added that an independence between the department and the president “is antithetical to the constitutional separation of powers (which lodges the Executive power in the President alone).”

To bolster the claim that an objective viewer could read the post as meaning “Kill President Trump,” prosecutors cited a slang dictionary — pushing back against Comey’s reliance on standard lexicographic definitions. They also highlighted that two minutes before publishing the photo, Comey’s wife had texted him a screenshot defining “86” as “to get rid of or refuse service,” not as a synonym for murder. The filing further references Comey’s forthcoming fiction novel, noting that his literary agent had flagged how the post’s virality might boost book sales. “Not my intention, but I’ll be OK if it sells books,” Comey allegedly told the agent, according to prosecutors.

The Justice Department attempts to distance itself from any appearance of political targeting, but the filing simultaneously argues that presidential direction of prosecutorial choices is constitutionally unremarkable — a position that may complicate its separation narrative in front of the judge.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “8647” mean in the Comey seashell post?

“86” is informal slang meaning to discard or get rid of something; “47” is the ordinal number of Donald Trump as the 47th president. Prosecutors interpret the combined image as a threat to eliminate the president. Comey and his defenders read it as a lighter political jab.

Who is Todd Blanche and what is his role?

Todd Blanche served as deputy attorney general (the department’s No. 2 position) before becoming acting attorney general and subsequently receiving a permanent nomination. The Wednesday filing seeks to show he had no hand in the Comey charging decision.

What happened to the earlier Virginia indictment against Comey?

A prior case alleging Comey lied to Congress was dismissed by a federal judge last year after court proceedings revealed procedural problems in how the Virginia U.S. attorney’s office pursued the charges. Prosecutors now call that dismissal a “technicality.”