{"id":91017,"date":"2026-07-27T17:01:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/comey-asks-judge-to-drop-case-over-seashells-instagram-post-arguing-speech-is-protected-by-first-amendment\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:01:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:01:39","slug":"comey-asks-judge-to-drop-case-over-seashells-instagram-post-arguing-speech-is-protected-by-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/comey-asks-judge-to-drop-case-over-seashells-instagram-post-arguing-speech-is-protected-by-first-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Comey asks judge to drop case over seashells Instagram post, arguing speech is protected by First Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><em>Washington \u2014 <\/em>Former FBI Director James Comey urged a federal judge on Monday to throw out an indictment alleging he threatened President Trump&#8217;s life, arguing that it targets speech protected by the First Amendment and that the phrase at the center of the charges, &#8220;86 47,&#8221; does not connote violence.<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Comey wrote in their <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nced.227449\/gov.uscourts.nced.227449.33.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">motion to dismiss<\/a> the case that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/james-comey-indicted-again-by-justice-dept\/\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">indictment returned by a federal grand jury<\/a> earlier this year &#8220;targets and chills&#8221; political speech. The First Amendment, they wrote, prohibits the government from using criminal prosecution to punish a political opponent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Forcing Mr. Comey to stand trial for a statement opposing the President \u2014 even if he is ultimately acquitted \u2014 would itself be an unconstitutional punishment of free speech,&#8221; Comey&#8217;s defense team wrote. &#8220;And it would invite future prosecutions by the Executive Branch against perceived political enemies for their opposition to the President.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They argued that the indictment against Comey should be dismissed because it does not allege he made a true threat against Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Comey faces two charges of threatening to kill the president, which stem from a photo he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/james-comey-under-investigation-posting-deleting-86-47-instagram-noem-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">briefly posted<\/a> to his Instagram account last year that showed seashells arranged in the sand to form the numbers &#8220;86 47.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors claim that a &#8220;reasonable recipient&#8221; would interpret the depiction of the shells &#8220;as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to President Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Comey deleted the image soon after he shared it and said at the time that he believed the shell formation was communicating a political message. He said in May 2025 that he didn&#8217;t realize that the numbers may be associated with violence and took the post down because &#8220;I oppose violence of any kind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The former FBI director is set to be arraigned in late September and has proclaimed he is innocent of the charges.<\/p>\n<p>Comey is expected to file several motions seeking to have the charges against him dismissed on a variety of grounds, including that the prosecution against him is selective and vindictive.<\/p>\n<p>In their first filing raising First Amendment issues with the indictment, his lawyers said that the phrase &#8220;86&#8221; means &#8220;to get rid of&#8221; or &#8220;eject,&#8221; and &#8220;has no violent connotation except in the most uncommon usages.&#8221; The defense team cited several other instances where the phrase &#8220;86&#8221; has been used, including by former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida in response to the removal of several GOP leaders from their roles.<\/p>\n<p>But even if Comey&#8217;s post is read to imply violence, his lawyers said, it would be recognized by a reasonable observer as political hyperbole, which is protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whatever one thinks of Mr. Comey&#8217;s message, the only question here is whether his post is protected speech. Because it is, the indictment must be dismissed,&#8221; they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Comey&#8217;s lawyers warned of the consequences of letting the criminal case against him move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Allowing the indictment to stand would &#8220;permit the government to chill political opposition merely by filing unfounded charges and imposing the burdens of a trial on someone who engaged in protected speech,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>Comey is a frequent target of the president&#8217;s due to his role in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which the FBI launched in Mr. Trump&#8217;s first term.<\/p>\n<p>He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/fbi-james-comey-arraignment-doj-trump-what-to-expect\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">indicted last year<\/a> in a separate case that involved testimony Comey gave to Congress in September 2020. But those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/james-comey-case-dismissed-judge-lindsey-halligan\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">charges were dismissed<\/a> when a judge found that the prosecutor who pursued and secured the indictment had been improperly appointed interim U.S. attorney.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department has appealed that decision.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/james-comey-trump-86-47-seashells-instagram-post-first-amendment\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington \u2014 Former FBI Director James Comey urged a federal judge on Monday to throw out an indictment alleging he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[157,766,526,3711,786],"class_list":["post-91017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-fbi","tag-indictment","tag-james-comey","tag-united-states-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Comey asks judge to drop case over seashells Instagram post, arguing speech is protected by First Amendment - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former FBI Director James Comey argued that criminal charges stemming from an Instagram post should be dropped because his speech is protected by the First Amendment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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