Comey Says DOJ Spied Illegally, Seeks to Toss Seashell Case
Former FBI director's lawyers argue prosecution erodes 'bedrock' legal principles
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Late Tuesday, lawyers for James Comey filed new motions asking a federal judge to throw out the case accusing the former FBI director of threatening President Trump — a charge that stems, improbably, from a photo of seashells arranged on a beach to spell "86 47."
Comey's legal team told the court the Justice Department conducted "illegal" surveillance in building its case against him, according to the filings reported by CBS News. The defense argues the prosecution threatens what it calls "bedrock" principles of the justice system, NBC News reported.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has moved to criminally charge Comey. The former FBI director, fired by Trump in 2017 during the Russia investigation, has been a recurring target of the president's ire for years, NBC News noted.
The underlying charge concerns a since-deleted Instagram post showing seashells arranged in the shapes "86" and "47" — numbers that critics of the president have used online as shorthand widely understood to mean removing the 47th president from office. Comey has maintained he did not intend the post as a threat.
What exactly the government's surveillance involved, and whether a judge will find it improper, remains to be seen — the motions were filed late Tuesday, and neither the Justice Department's response nor a court ruling has yet been reported. That gap matters: a claim this serious, that federal investigators broke the law to build a case against a former FBI director, deserves scrutiny before it hardens into fact on anyone's telling.
— Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News and NBC News.
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