In motions filed late Tuesday, the Justice Department explained its indictment against former FBI Director James Comey over a social media post prosecutors claim was a threat against President Donald Trump. 

“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” prosecutors argued. 

In May 2025, Comey posted on Instagram a photo of seashells he claimed to have found in a numerical arrangement of "86 47." The number "86" is a slang term that means to "remove" or "get rid of," and Trump is the 47th President of the United States. 

Tuesday's filings, which provide the most detailed explanation to date of the indictment, provide a response to the defense's efforts to dismiss the case, arguing it constitutes a vindictive prosecution and that Comey's post wasn't a true threat against Trump, the Associated Press reported. 

Comey's lawyers claim that investigators have misled judges, submitted documents that contain false statements, withheld key facts and failed to prove that Comey meant the post as a threat. 

According to prosecutors, two minutes before Comey posted the photo, his wife texted him a screenshot of a definition of "86" that said it meant "to get rid of or refuse service." 

They also argued there's "reasons to doubt" Comey's account of having come upon the seashells on a walk, saying that they were located 4 miles “down from the beach from beachfront property where Comey was staying, in an area separated from the ocean by a sand dune.” They said there was “no evidence that anyone else arranged, photographed, or even saw the shells.”