James Comey Indictment: What to Know, Briefly Explained

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Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is taking another run at its enemies list.

What happened? On Tuesday, former FBI Director James Comey was indicted for a second time on new federal charges; Prosecutors allege that a social media post Comey made in 2025 showing shells arranged to read “86 47” was “a threat to take the life of Donald Trump and to do him bodily harm.”

Trump is the 47th president, and “86” is commonly understood service industry slang for the rejection or removal of something or someone, depending on the context – but prosecutors, and some Republicansinstead chose to interpret it as a call for Trump’s assassination.

At the time, Comey said he was unaware of any violent connotations with the term and quickly deleted his post in response to backlash.

Why Comey? Trump has long wanted to punish Comey for his role in the investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Specifically, Tuesday’s indictment is a transparent repeat of a similar effort last year, when the Trump administration briefly — and incompetently — indicted Comey on another set of thin chargeswho was subsequently fired.

(That’s not even, we should note, the only effort today: The administration also stepped up its attack on late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s employer, ABC, on Tuesday, after both the president and first lady Melania Trump went after Kimmel for a joke. Kimmel was briefly forced off the air by the administration.)

What is the big picture? Earlier this month, Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi and replaced her with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former member of Trump’s personal legal team.

Trump’s frustrations with Bondi were well known; in September I posted a message addressed to her complaining that “nothing is being done” against his enemies. Blanche, who is in the running for the permanent AG position, is clearly trying to fix this as soon as possible, no matter how ridiculous the charges.

And with that, it’s time to sign off…