Court Battles

Charging Comey is a free speech trap: Turley

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by Tara Suter - 04/29/26 9:12 AM ET

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by Tara Suter - 04/29/26 9:12 AM ET

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Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said charging former FBI Director James Comey would amount to a free speech trap after the Department of Justice (DOJ) secured a second indictment against him.

“Comey will now likely create a new category of protected shell speech,” Turley said in an opinion piece for Fox News published Tuesday. “The problem with this indictment will be the merits. The indictment concerns an image that was later removed by Comey showing ‘86 47’ in shells on a beach. Comey has a rather odd history of drawing inspiration from shells.”

“This message, however, had a lethal twist since many interpreted the message as essentially calling for the killing or ‘86-ing’ of Trump,” Turley added, in his piece titled “Comey’s shell post may be crass, but charging him is a free speech trap.”

Comey last May posted a photo of seashells on a beach set up to display the numbers 86-47, which President Trump, the 47th president, said at the time was a call for his killing.

“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Trump told Fox News last year.

The former FBI director is facing two charges for allegedly threatening Trump via the seashells post, per the indictment.

“The defendant, James Brien Comey Jr., did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States,” the indictment reads.

“The First Amendment is designed to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech rarely needs protection. It also protects bad and hateful speech. It even protects lies so long as those lies are not used for the purpose of fraud or other criminal conspiracies,” Turley wrote in his Fox News piece.

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