Kash Patel Says FBI Spent Nearly a Year Investigating James Comey’s Instagram Post: ‘These Cases Take Time’

Mediaite ^ | April 28, 2026 | Michael Luciano

[Miami Rebel]

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau spent nearly a year investigating a social media post that led to Tuesday’s indictment of one of his predecessors, James Comey.

Comey was charged over an Instagram post he made in May 2025, which he later deleted after conservative uproar. The post showed an image of seashells on a beach arranged in a way that read “86 47.” The former FBI director wrote, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

President Donald Trump is the 47th president, while “86” is slang in the service industry and typically means to refuse service to someone or to throw a person out of an establishment. Conservatives insisted the “86” in this case meant “kill.”

Amid the furor last year, Comey said it was “crazy” to think his post was a threat.

Comey was indicted on two counts in the Eastern District of North Carolina: making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat across state lines.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Patel echoed Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said the bureau spent 11 months on the case. The director said the length of the probe is not unusual, as such cases “take time”:

As the U.S. Attorney indicated, James Comey will be afforded every matter of due process under the United States Constitution. And as the attorney general indicated, this has been a case that’s been investigated over the past nine, 10, 11 months. These cases take time. Our investigators work methodically. They are career agents, career prosecutors who work these matters. They call the balls and strikes in the field as they see fit, pursuant to the facts of the case and the law. They took that information and made a presentment to a grand jury, a jury of their peers in the district in which the alleged crime took place. And that grand jury spoke. And that grand jury returned a two-count indictment against James Comey, James Comey allegedly threatened the life of the president of the United States.

This is the second time Comey has been indicted. In September, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation in 2020. Two months later, a judge tossed the charges after ruling that the U.S. Attorney for the District, who had signed the indictment, was illegally appointed.

[wardaddy]

Indeed
This Blanche has been productive
Hope it continues