Illinois Governor JB Pritzker Predicts DOJ’s James Comey Indictment Will Be Dismissed Over Seashell Photo

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker expressed near-certainty that the Department of Justice’s new indictment against James Comey will be dismissed, arguing the case stems from a trivial matter—a photo of seashells arranged to spell "86-47" on a beach.

Pritzker shared his assessment during a Tuesday appearance on MS NOW’s “Deadline: White House”, where he framed the indictment as an unconstitutional attack on free speech and a political weapon against a perceived adversary of former President Donald Trump.

“So, this indictment is not the first indictment that they’ve gone after Comey with,” Pritzker told host Nicolle Wallace. “It’s not the first indictment of going after a political enemy of Donald Trump’s—or that he views as a political enemy.”

He continued, criticizing Trump’s use of federal power: “He threatened to jail me, even though he has no particular evidence of any crime or anything. He just announced that he wants to jail me … He thinks that he can use the power of the federal government to go after people that he doesn’t like.”

Pritzker condemned the indictment as “wrong,” particularly following the cancellation of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which he described as a celebration of the First Amendment. “He is literally trying to prosecute somebody who is guilty of one thing, it seems, and that is putting out his first amendment views,” Pritzker said.

The governor highlighted the absurdity of the case: “The picture of ’86-47′ [written out in seashells on a beach], that is what they’re using as evidence Comey is threatening the life of the president.” He noted that Comey posted the photo, then removed it, not because it was a threat, but because he believed it might be improper. “Here they’re just using that alone to go after the man.”

While Pritzker expressed sympathy for Comey, acknowledging the former FBI director faces prolonged legal challenges, he predicted the case would collapse. “The case is going to be thrown out,” he said. “I can almost guarantee you. We’re talking about seashells on a beach.”

His remarks followed the DOJ’s indictment of Comey, which accused the former FBI director of threatening the president’s life for posting the seashell photo on Instagram in May. Comey later removed the post and stated he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”

In response, Comey posted a video on Substack on Tuesday, asserting, “This is not who we are as a country, this is not how the Department of Justice is supposed to be.”

The Trump administration previously indicted Comey in September for alleged perjury before Congress, but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed.