Federal grand jury in North Carolina indicts Comey on Tuesday

James Comey was expected to surrender to authorities in Virginia after a North Carolina federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment accusing the former FBI director of threatening President Donald Trump through a deleted Instagram post. The case moved from the Eastern District of North Carolina to an anticipated self-surrender in the Eastern District of Virginia, putting a former top federal law-enforcement official into the criminal process he once helped oversee.

Prosecutors said the indictment covered 18 U.S.C. 871 and 18 U.S.C. 875(c). In their account, Comey, 65, posted an image on May 15, 2025, showing seashells arranged to read 86 47, with a caption about a beach walk. The government said a reasonable recipient familiar with the circumstances would treat the post as a serious expression of intent to harm the president.

Self-surrender is only the first step. Federal procedure calls for an arrested and charged defendant to appear before a magistrate judge for an initial hearing, usually the same day or the next day, where the court addresses rights, counsel and release conditions. At arraignment, the indictment is read in open court and the defendant is asked to plead, so the next phase in Comey’s case will turn on standard federal-court procedure rather than the political clash around it.

The prosecution also came after Comey faced unrelated charges last year, a case that was later dismissed after challenges to the legitimacy of the prosecutor who brought it. That history gave the new indictment added institutional weight, with a former FBI director again moving through ordinary federal court steps while the legal and political scrutiny around the case intensified.