File photo: Former FBI Director James Comey testifies during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election at the Capitol in Washington, USA, on June 8, 2017.
Aaron P. Bernstein | Reuters
Lawyers for James Comey allege that the U.S. Secret Service “deliberately conducted unlawful electronic surveillance” of the former FBI director at the request of senior officials on the same day that President Donald Trump claimed Comey posted a photo of seashells forming the number “8647” on a North Carolina beach and threatened to “assassinate” him, according to a new court filing.
Tuesday night’s filing said a Secret Service supervisor told him that warrantless surveillance of Comey in May 2025 was “legally questionable,” but that the agency “may pursue it anyway.”
It also claims that the Secret Service conducted the surveillance at the request of the Justice Department’s “number three” person. The surveillance included watching the Comeys return to Washington, D.C. from North Carolina, “including a stop to visit their deceased son’s grave,” the filing said.
The filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina asks a judge to dismiss, on the grounds of retaliatory and selective prosecution, an indictment issued against Comey in April for threatening the president with the “8647” photo he posted on Instagram and communicating threats in interstate commerce.
“Behind the scenes, the Secret Service worked closely with the Department of Justice and the President himself,” Comey’s lawyers wrote.
“The Secret Service sent frequent updates to Air Force One in response to President Trump’s direct request for updated information before speaking to the press,” the filing said of Comey’s Instagram posts.
And on the same day that the Secret Service conducted illegal electronic surveillance on Mr. Comey, the Secret Service “enacted a new policy, effective immediately, treating the phrase ‘8647’ as code language for threatening the President.”
“86” is a term often used by restaurant staff to indicate that a particular menu item is no longer available. Trump is the 47th President of the United States.
When asked about the charges, a Justice Department spokesperson told MS NOW, “A grand jury in North Carolina has indicted Mr. Comey, and he will have his day in court like any other defendant.”
A federal judge in Virginia last year dismissed another charge against Comey for lying in Congressional testimony. The judge in the case found that President Trump’s former personal attorney Lindsey Harrigan was illegally appointed as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he was prosecuting Comey.
Harrigan had obtained the indictment.
