2026-08-19T13:58:36.159Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
美国司法部在一份法庭文件中表示，其高层并未参与2025年以社交媒体发布一张贝壳排列图为由，对前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米提起刑事指控的决定。
这张贝壳图引发了审查，因为数字“86”常指代丢弃或处理某样东西，而唐纳德·特朗普是第47任总统。检方称该帖子构成了对特朗普生命的威胁，科米对此予以否认。
这份周二晚间提交的文件试图将司法部长托德·布兰奇与该决策撇清关系，称是北卡罗来纳州东区联邦检察官埃利斯·博伊尔牵头对特朗普的主要反对者之一提起了这项指控。
“没有人下令甚至暗示博伊尔推进正在进行的调查或寻求起诉，”检方在周三提交的文件中写道。
在披露博伊尔的处理方式时，美国司法部希望说服法官，科米并非因为总统对其的敌意而遭到检方的报复性 targeting。
“科米试图将对他提起指控的决定描述为来自总统和/或司法部长的指令。这完全是虚假的，”检方在周二提交给北卡罗来纳州东区联邦法院的法庭文件中写道。“联邦检察官博伊尔上任后对此事进行了调查，并在未受司法部长，更不用说总统任何影响的情况下做出了决定。”
不过，司法部在文件中表示，博伊尔在今年春季大陪审团批准起诉的前一天，曾告知司法部长检方将就贝壳帖子对科米提起诉讼。
“事实上，博伊尔直到向大陪审团提交此事的前一天才与司法部长讨论起诉决定，当时这么做是为了让司法部长了解起诉可能引发的媒体关注，这符合《司法部手册》的要求，”检方写道。
布兰奇当时作为副司法部长是司法部二号人物，他和联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔公开支持博伊尔在北卡罗来纳州起诉科米，两人均在起诉当天与博伊尔一同在华盛顿发表了媒体讲话。
今年4月的贝壳起诉案是科米第二次被本届司法部起诉。此前一起指控他向国会撒谎的案件已于去年被法官驳回，原因是庭审过程中暴露出弗吉尼亚州联邦检察官办案方式存在问题。
科米辩称，两起案件都是司法部屈从于总统政治意愿的不公平行为所致。
检方在周三的文件中表示，弗吉尼亚州的前一起案件是因“程序瑕疵”被驳回，而非最初指控的“实质上未解决”的罪名。
在驳斥科米关于特朗普亲自要求起诉他的说法时，司法部律师辩称，特朗普本质上可以为所欲为。
即使有证据表明特朗普指示博伊尔或布兰奇起诉科米，检方写道，“行政首长指示其下属行使核心行政职能，这是我们宪法体系的特色，而非缺陷。”
检方补充道，司法部与特朗普之间的独立性“与宪法规定的三权分立背道而驰，（宪法将行政权仅赋予总统一人）”。
俚语词典与科米的著作
为了证明“客观来看，任何看到科米帖子的人都能将其解读为‘杀死特朗普总统’”，检方援引了一本俚语词典，反驳科米引用权威词典对该术语的定义。
检方还称，科米发布照片的两分钟前，他的妻子曾发给这位前局长一张截图，显示“86”的含义是“丢弃或拒绝服务”，而非谋杀或杀害。
科米的小说原定于他发布贝壳照片后不久出版，检方在周三的文件中也多次提及该书。
检方指出，包括科米的经纪人在内的相关人士都曾提醒，贝壳帖子及其后续的病毒式传播将有助于图书销售。
“这不是我的本意，但如果能促进书籍销售，我也没问题，”检方援引科米当时对经纪人的说法称。
在文件中，检方试图颠覆科米在小说中的叙事视角，暗示科米在小说中扮演了极右翼反派角色，该角色呼吁“采取行动”对付敌人，最终导致其追随者发动袭击。
“2025年5月15日，一位名叫詹姆斯·科米的魅力型领袖，”检方在援引小说节选后写道，“借助互联网的力量，向其追随者发布了一条编码信息，意思是‘杀死’或‘除掉’（‘杀死’的委婉说法）特朗普总统。”
检方还强调了针对特朗普生命的多起威胁和袭击事件，以此为对科米贝壳帖子的调查辩护，其中包括来自伊朗的威胁。
“最近的一次是在2026年7月8日，伊朗策划了对空军一号的导弹袭击，企图杀死特朗普总统，”检方在公开承认这一威胁时写道，美国有线电视新闻网等媒体此前曾对此进行过报道。
不过，这些威胁并不能解释政府为何投入大量精力调查科米的社交媒体帖子。
本文已更新补充更多信息。
Justice Department attempts to distance Attorney General Todd Blanche from Comey’s ‘8647’ seashell threat indictment
2026-08-19T13:58:36.159Z / CNN
The Justice Department said in a court filing that its senior leadership wasn’t involved in the decision to criminally charge former FBI Director James Comey for posting a picture of seashells arranged to say “8647” on social media in 2025.
The picture drew scrutiny as the number 86 often refers to tossing or getting rid of something, and Donald Trump is the 47th president. Prosecutors say the post amounts to a threat on Trump’s life, which Comey has denied.
Distancing Attorney General Todd Blanche from the decision making, the Tuesday night filing says it was Ellis Boyle, the US attorney in Eastern North Carolina, who was behind bringing the indictment against one of Trump’s top foes.
“No one ordered or even suggested that Boyle pursue the ongoing investigation or seek an indictment,” prosecutors wrote in Wednesday’s filing.
In disclosing the approach by Boyle, the Justice Department hopes to convince a judge that Comey wasn’t targeted vindictively by prosecutors because of the president’s animus toward him.
“Comey attempts to portray the decision to charge him as resulting from a directive by the President and/or the Attorney General. That is simply false,” prosecutors wrote in the court filing in the eastern North Carolina federal court on Tuesday. “U.S. Attorney Boyle looked into the matter upon assuming his position and made the decision without any influence from the Attorney General, much less the President, whatsoever.”
Still, the Justice Department says in the filing Boyle told the attorney general that prosecutors would seek the Comey indictment over the seashell post on the day before a grand jury approved it this spring.
“Indeed, Boyle did not even discuss the charging decision with the Attorney General until the day before presenting the matter to the grand jury, and did so then so that the Attorney General would be aware of the possibility of publicity relating to the indictment, as the Justice Manual instructs,” the prosecutors wrote.
Blanche — who was then the Justice Department’s No. 2 leader, as deputy attorney general — and FBI Director Kash Patel publicly supported Boyle charging Comey in North Carolina, with both giving press remarks the day of the indictment in Washington alongside Boyle.
The seashell indictment in April was the second time Comey had been indicted by this Justice Department. A previous case, alleging he lied to Congress, was dismissed by a judge last year after court proceedings unearthed issues with the Virginia-based US attorney’s approach.
Comey has argued that both cases were the result of a Justice Department acting unfairly to bend to the president’s political wishes.
Prosecutors, in Wednesday’s filing, said the previous case in Virginia was dismissed on a “technicality” and not the “substantively unresolved” charges initially brought.
In their attempts to bat away Comey’s argument that Trump has personally called for Comey’s prosecution, attorneys for the Justice Department argued Trump can, essentially, do what he wants.
Even if there was evidence that Trump directed Boyle or Blanche to charge Comey, prosecutors wrote, “the Chief Executive directing his subordinates to exercise core Executive functions is a feature, not a bug, of our constitutional system.”
Prosecutors added that independence between the Justice Department and Trump “is antithetical to the constitutional separation of powers (which lodges the Executive power in the President alone).”
Slang dictionaries and Comey’s book
To support their finding that “there is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” prosecutors cited a slang dictionary, pushing back on Comey’s citation from established dictionaries of the term.
Prosecutors also say that two minutes prior to posting his photo, Comey’s wife sent the former director a screenshot of a definition for “86” as meaning “to get rid of or refuse service” — not murder or kill.
Comey’s fiction book, which was set for release shortly after he originally posted the seashell picture, was also cited at length in Wednesday’s filings.
Prosecutors noted that individuals, including Comey’s agent, were flagging how the seashell post and its subsequent virality would help with book sales.
“Not my intention, but I’ll be OK if it sells books,” Comey allegedly told his agent at the time, according to prosecutors.
In their filings, prosecutors attempt to flip a narrative in Comey’s novel on its head, suggesting Comey was playing the role of a far-right villain in the novel whose calls for “something to be done” about his enemies leads to attacks by his followers.
“On May 15, 2025, a charismatic leader named James Comey,” prosecutors wrote following an excerpt cited from the novel, “through the wonder of the internet, posted a coded message to his followers meaning ‘kill’ or ‘get rid of’ (a euphemism for ‘kill’) President Trump.”
Prosecutors also highlighted the many threats and attempts on Trump’s life in justifying the investigation into Comey following his seashell post, including from Iran.
“Most recently on July 8, 2026, Iran orchestrated a missile attack against Air Force One in an effort to kill President Trump,” prosecutors wrote in a public admission of a threat CNN and other outlets have reported on.
Those threats, however, do not explain the administration’s extensive efforts to investigate Comey’s social media post.
This story was updated with additional information.
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