Comey’s arraignment postponed 3rd time; now in January
James Comey, former FBI director in hot water for a social media post of seashells spelling out 86 47 on a North Carolina beach, will not face arraignment next week in New Bern.
Judge Louise Flanagan, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, on Friday afternoon pushed the date back to January. Trial would now begin in February. It’s the third delay since the summer.
In her order, she wrote, “The court finds that the ends of justice served by granting the requested continuance and setting arraignment in January 2027, outweigh the best interests of the public and defendant in a speedy trial. The gravity of the charges, pending motions, and the need to provide defense counsel additional time to prepare for trial promote need for continuance.”
“While ready to adhere to the current schedule, implicit in the government’s reported statement of no opposition here is its agreement that the ends of justice served by this continuance, for direct benefit of defendant, outweigh the interests of the public in a speedy trial.”
Comey is facing two federal counts of threats against the president.
Comey said he discovered the arrangement while walking the beach. He took down the social media post soon after putting it up, with an explanation that he didn’t know the numbers could be taken as a promotion of violence.
Prosecutors say two minutes before his post, Comey’s wife texted him a screenshot of the definition of 86 – to get rid of or refuse service.
The filing from prosecutors says, “There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump.’”
The arrangement was 4 miles down from beachfront property where Comey stayed. Prosecutors say text messages between Comey and his agent after the social media post included the former FBI director’s assertion he didn’t mean for a viral post, yet said, “I’ll be OK if it sells books.”
Comey’s Instagram account had an estimated 200,000 followers at the time, prosecutors say, and the reach to secondary users would be in the millions.
Flanagan had set arraignment for Wednesday and a trial to begin Oct. 21. Before that, arraignment was set for June 30 with trial to begin July 15.
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