The Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly pursuing a separate probe into allegations that former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information.
“Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia office that failed in its first criminal case against Comey last year for alleged false statements to Congress, have in recent weeks revived their separate, but interrelated, pursuit of Comey,” reported Bloomberg Law.
“The investigation is tied to his dissemination of documents to Columbia University Law Professor Daniel Richman, the individuals added,” as reported by the outlet. “If successful, it would be the Trump DOJ’s third time indicting Comey since last fall.”
Two anonymous sources close to the matter said that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has been holding active meetings on the case, though it has not yet been decided if the DOJ will present an indictment of Comey to the grand jury in Eastern Virginia.
The report of a pending third indictment against Comey comes after the Department of Justice hit him with a two-count indictment stemming from a social media post he made in 2025 that featured an arranged set of seashells on a North Carolina beach, which read, “86 47” — 86 possibly meaning “eliminate” and 47 potentially meaning President Donald Trump. While the phrase “86” does not inherently mean violence — it allegedly originated as a restaurant term — people immediately criticized the post for tangentially implying violence, and Comey deleted the post as a result.
The indictment against Comey was delivered by a grand jury, which also issued a warrant for his arrest.
Comey “did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States, in that he 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 filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
