Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) thinks the criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey are so laughable that they could inspire a new name for prosecutions that are just as flimsy.
During a Sunday stop by NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he told journalist Kristen Welker, “I think in the future in the DOJ, if anyone ever suggests bringing a case this weak, there will be a new name for it: ‘seashells cases.’”
Late last month, a grand jury indicted Comey for allegedly threatening President Donald Trump’s life through a 2025 Instagram post picturing seashells on the shoreline arranged to read “86 47.”
Following the indictment, Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, raged at “dirty cop” Comey in a Truth Social post where he claimed 86 was “a mob term” for murder, something Comey knew “full well.”
Members of the public, bipartisan legal experts and even some Republicans have questioned how the president and his allies came to such a violent conclusion about the term, which is typically used as shorthand for giving someone the boot from a restaurant, bar or job.
Schiff told NBC that the Comey case was a reflection of how skewed the Department of Justice’s priorities have gotten under Trump, who has repeatedly sicced the attorney general’s office on his political enemies.
“The fact that we’re spending time on a seashells case and the top leadership of the Justice Department is so focused on it means they’re not focused on violent crime cases,” he said. “They’re not focused on rape cases and child trafficking. Their focus is, you know, on James Comey and seashells, and it’s the American public that suffers.”
This is the second case the DOJ has thrown at Comey, who made it onto Trump’s nemesis list after overseeing investigations into his 2016 presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia actors.
Last year, a judge dismissed charges alleging Comey made false statements to Congress during testimony in 2020 about FBI leaks to the press upon determining former U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who pursued them, was unlawfully appointed.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Adam Schiff’s title. He is a U.S. senator.