A federal judge has postponed the arraignment for former FBI Director James Comey in the “seashells” case following a request from his attorneys to postpone all proceedings in light of his several motions to dismiss the indictment.
Attorneys for Comey asked the court earlier this month to move his arraignment, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, to January 2027 and his trial to February 2027. The government did not oppose that request, which U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan then granted Friday. Flanagan did not yet set a new trial date but indicated she would not do so until after the arraignment.
In her postponement order, Flanagan wrote, “The gravity of the charges, pending motions, and the need to provide defense counsel additional time to prepare for trial promote need for continuance.”
This is the second time his arraignment has been postponed. It was originally scheduled for June.
The former FBI director was charged with two felony counts for allegedly threatening the president’s life for a photo he posted on social media
In May 2025, Comey posted a photo of the numbers “86 47’’ spelled out in seashells on the beach in North Carolina. That phrase is a widely used term among restaurant workers that generally means to get rid of or refuse something, such as an unwanted customer or unavailable menu item.
Prosecutors alleged that phrase constituted a threat against Donald Trump, the 47th president, and charged Comey with “knowingly and willfully” threatening the president.
Lawyers for Comey have disputed that the former FBI director was threatening the president.
“That claim is contradicted by every possible source of meaning: dictionaries, context, precedent, and common sense,” they wrote in a filing. “Most dictionaries don’t even list the meaning — ‘to kill’— that the government now proposes.”
Comey has yet to be arraigned on these charges despite being indicted by a federal grand jury in April. The former FBI director made an initial appearance in the case in the federal court in Virginia, where he resides, in April. He has not yet entered a plea in federal court in North Carolina, where the charges were filed.
Lawyers for Comey filed several motions to dismiss the “seashell” charges in July, including allegations that the government had engaged in vindictive and selective prosecution.
They argued the case “is not based on a good-faith application of the law to the facts” but instead “effectuates a yearslong campaign by the President to use the criminal process to punish Mr. Comey for his protected speech and because of the President’s deep-seated animosity.”
The government pushed back on the allegation that the prosecution was vindictive.
“Comey does not allege (let alone show) that the prosecutorial decisionmakers in this case had improper motives,” prosecutors wrote. “Instead, he speculates that they were induced by others with improper motives.”
Flanagan has neither heard arguments nor issued a ruling on Comey’s bid to dismiss the case.
This is the second time Comey has been indicted by Trump’s Department of Justice in the past 12 months. Last September, Comey was charged with two federal counts of lying to Congress and obstruction of a federal proceeding.
The indictment against Comey in Virginia was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge because Lindsey Halligan, the interim U.S. attorney who secured and signed the indictment by herself, was found to be unlawfully appointed.The Trump administration appealed that dismissal and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on it earlier this month.
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