Comey wants to push arraignment back to October in Trump threat case

Former FBI Director James Comey hopes to delay his arraignment until October in the North Carolina federal case charging him with threatening President Donald Trump.

Comey is scheduled to be arraigned June 30 in New Bern. A trial date is set for July 15 before US District Judge Louise Flanagan.

But Comey’s lawyers filed a motion Wednesday to push the arraignment back to October. A trial would take place at a later date. The motion also seeks to extend the current deadline for filing pretrial motions.

“Mr. Comey expects to file multiple motions on constitutional grounds seeking dismissal of the indictment,” his lawyers wrote. “Some of these motions may be dependent upon the discovery to be produced by the Government, and may require extensive briefing. Discovery is still forthcoming from the Government. For that reason, Mr. Comey respectfully requests that the Court extend the current scheduling deadlines.”

Phil Aubart, the first assistant US attorney working on the case, “does not oppose” Comey’s proposed schedule, according to the court filing.

Comey faces two charges related to alleged threats against Trump. The charges are based on a 2025 Instagram post in which Comey documented sea shells on a beach arranged to spell out “86 47.”

The slang term “86” means “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to,” according to Merriam-Webster.com. Trump is the 47th American president.

Comey appeared in a Virginia federal courthouse on April 29, the day after his indictment.

The indictment charges that Comey “knowingly and willfully made a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.”

While in the “Eastern District of North Carolina,” Comey “publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site Instagram which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out ‘86 47,’ which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States,” according to the indictment.

A second count charges that Comey “knowingly and willfully did transmit in interstate and foreign commerce a communication that contained a threat to kill the President, Donald J. Trump, specifically.”

“Threatening the life of the President of the United States is a grave violation of our nation’s laws,” US Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a news release. “The grand jury returned an indictment alleging James Comey did just that, at a time when this country has witnessed violent incitement followed by deadly actions against President Trump and other elected officials. The temperature needs to be turned down, and anyone who dials it up and threatens the life of the President will be held accountable.” 

“You are not allowed to the threaten the president of the United States of America,” Blanche said during an April 28 news conference announcing the indictment. “That’s not my decision. That’s Congress’ decision in a statute that they passed that we charge multiple times in a year.”

Comey is charged with threatening the president in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871(a) and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted.

The since-deleted social media post prompted a backlash last year. “Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey wrote along with the photo of the arranged sea shells in the sand.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey wrote in a later Instagram post. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

This is the Justice Department’s second indictment of Comey in seven months. In September he faced an indictment on charges that he lied to and obstructed Congress during testimony in 2020. That case was dropped when a judge concluded that the prosecutor handling the case had been appointed illegally.

“Comey wants to push arraignment back to October in Trump threat case” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.