Ben Shapiro on James Comey indictment: “I would hope that there is more to this case than he put out a dumb Instagram post”
Shapiro: “If all the evidence that they end up with after a year is basically what we see right now, that case ain't going nowhere, and it's going to backfire”
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From the April 29, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): I mention this because yesterday it was announced that a federal grand jury had indicted former FBI director and giant weirdo James Comey again. Now listen, again, James Comey being harassed by law enforcement on a sort of schadenfreude level, I ain't losing sleep. James Comey helped initiate the Russia-gate investigation that spun up a bajillion conspiracy theories and ruined people's lives, destroyed their finances, and all the rest. And he did it based on absolute trash that he knew at the time was trash. However, are these counts that are being filed against Comey likely to succeed in court? I mean, we'll find out, I assume. I would hope that there is more to this case than he put out a dumb Instagram post. Maybe they came up with some supporting information that suggested that he actually wanted to inflict bodily harm on the president.
But there are two counts that an Eastern North Carolina grand jury indicted on. Count one is that James Comey, the former FBI director, quote, knowingly and willfully made a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States. Now what was that? You will remember that back on May 15 of last year, he put up an image on his Instagram of seashells that said eight six four seven, 8647. Now the prosecutors say a reasonable recipient who's familiar with the circumstances would interpret this as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president of the United States and count two is basically the same thing. They said that Comey consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his communication would be viewed as threatening violence and knowingly transmitted a communication in interstate commerce that contained a threat to injure the person of another. And so Kash Patel, the head of the FBI, said that a year of resources were — I'm not sure. I mean, I'll be curious to see what the effect of that is. I feel like that case is exactly what the case is. He put out a photo that said 8647. 86 can mean kill, like 86 something, or it can mean just get rid of. Meaning, like, if you want to 86 a customer, kick the customer out. Or if you want 86 a dish, you can just take the dish off the menu, for example. But, you know, if all we've got here, if all the evidence that they end up with after a year is basically what we see right now, that case ain't going nowhere, and it's going to backfire because it'll look as though the mechanisms of law enforcement are being used for political gain, which is never a good look. And again, it's not a good look on the left either. Donald Trump's president again.