My Closing Argument for James Comey

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Members of the jury.

Take a breath with me. You have sat in that box for days now. You have listened to the government call witnesses, show you exhibits, and walk you through what they want you to believe is a federal crime. Now you get to do the most important job in this courtroom. You get to look at the evidence the government actually put in front of you, and you get to decide whether the United States of America just spent your tax dollars prosecuting a man for taking a picture of seashells on a beach.

Read that sentence again in your head. Seashells. On a beach. A photograph. That is the case. That is what twelve American citizens were pulled away from their jobs, their families, and their lives to decide.

I want to talk to you today about three things. What the government actually proved. What the law actually requires. And what you, the jury, are being asked to protect.

The Photograph

The evidence is not in dispute. James Comey walked on a North Carolina beach. He saw shells in the sand arranged in a pattern that looked like the numbers 8647. He took a picture. He posted it to Instagram with a caption that read, and I quote the caption the government itself put into evidence, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” When people online pointed out that some folks read 8647 as a political slogan, he took the post down. He wrote, “I oppose violence of any kind.” Four words. Plain English. Not buried in a footnote. Posted publicly.

That is the conduct. That is the entire conduct. There is no second post. There is no private message. There is no phone call. There is no rifle scope. There is no map of the White House. There is no plan. There is a man walking on the beach with his wife, a phone, and a caption about a cool shell formation.

The government wants you to take that, those facts, and convict a man of two federal felonies. Threatening the President of the United States. Transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Let me tell you what 8647 means in this country, because the government sure did not want to tell you in plain English.

What Eight Six Means

Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows what 86 means. Anyone who has worked behind a bar knows. Anyone who has waited tables, run a kitchen, tended a hotel front desk, anyone who has worked a single shift in American hospitality, knows. 86 means we are out of it. 86 means cancel the order. 86 means walk the customer to the door. The phrase has been in American slang since the 1930s. Ninety years. Older than most of the people in this room.

47 is a number. It is the number of the current President. Donald Trump is the 47th occupant of the Oval Office. He himself wears the number on hats and merchandise his campaign sells.

Put them together and you get a political slogan. 8647. Show this guy the door. Vote him out. Send him home. You see it on bumper stickers from California to Maine. You see it on protest signs at every rally in every blue district in this country. Millions, and I mean millions, of Americans say it, post it, and wear it every single day.

That is not me telling you that. That is the testimony you heard in this courtroom. That is the evidence in front of you.

Now the prosecutor stood right where I am standing and told you 8647 is code for assassination. Members of the jury, I want you to use your common sense. The same common sense you use when you buy a car, raise your kids, or vote in an election. Does a slogan that has been printed on bumper stickers and sold at souvenir shops in every American city since the day Donald Trump took office sound to you like a coded murder plot? Does a phrase that originated in restaurant kitchens in the 1930s sound to you like a death threat?

You know the answer. Your gut knew the answer the minute you heard the charge read aloud.

What the Law Actually Requires

Now let me talk to you about the law, because this is where the government’s case does not just struggle. This is where it collapses entirely.

The judge will instruct you on something called a true threat. The Supreme Court of the United States, three years ago, in a case called Counterman against Colorado, told every prosecutor and every court in this country exactly what the government has to prove before it can put a citizen in a federal prison for speech.

The government has to prove that James Comey understood a reasonable listener would take his message as a serious expression of intent to commit violence. They have to prove he was at least reckless about that. That is the constitutional floor. Below that floor, the speech is protected. Period.

Now apply that standard to the evidence you actually heard.

The caption was “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Does that read to you as a serious expression of intent to commit violence? Does the word “cool” jump out at you as a death threat? Does the phrase “beach walk” sound like a rifle being loaded?

When people online raised concerns, James Comey took the post down within hours. He posted, “I oppose violence of any kind.” Does a man planning violence post the words “I oppose violence” on his way out the door?

Recklessness as to whether a reasonable person would read this as a serious expression of intent to kill the President. The government did not prove it. The government did not come close to proving it. The government did not even try to prove it, because the evidence makes the attempt absurd.

The Receipts the Government Hopes You Forgot

As you were shown during trial, I want you to think about who has posted what in this country and walked away clean.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan went on national television in 2020 with a figurine on the table behind her reading 8645. The same construction. The same slogan. Different number. No indictment. No grand jury. No federal investigation. No knock on her door at six in the morning.

Jack Posobiec, a conservative commentator who currently sits in good standing with this administration, posted 8646 during Joe Biden’s presidency. The same construction. No charges. He recently sat down for a friendly television interview with the very man who is prosecuting this case.

You heard evidence about how in 2023, Donald Trump posted to his own social media platform an image of Joe Biden hogtied, bound at the wrists, and lying on the tailgate of a pickup truck driving down a highway.

No indictment. No grand jury. No federal investigation. No prosecutor parachuted into a U.S. Attorney’s office to charge him with threatening the President of the United States.

Donald Trump Junior posted a photograph of a hammer and men’s underwear on Instagram in 2022. He did it to mock a brutal home invasion that fractured the skull of an 82 year old man, Paul Pelosi, who was attacked with the same kind of hammer in his own home. No indictment.

The current President of the United States posts attacks on private citizens, federal judges, prosecutors, journalists, and entire foreign populations on social media on a near daily basis. He has shared images depicting violence against political opponents. He has called for the imprisonment of his critics. No indictment.

Members of the jury, the pattern is impossible to miss. Threats in this country get prosecuted in only one direction. The direction the man in the Oval Office points his finger.

You are not in this courtroom because James Comey threatened anyone. You are in this courtroom because James Comey, as the former Director of the FBI, once oversaw an investigation into the man who is now the President. That is the entire reason. Every other word in this indictment is decoration.

Who Brought This Case

Look at the people who walked into your courtroom and asked you to send a man to federal prison for a photograph.

The first indictment in this matter was brought by Lindsey Halligan. A former personal attorney to Donald Trump. She was placed into a United States Attorney’s office for the purpose of charging the President’s political enemies. A federal judge threw that indictment out and ruled her appointment unconstitutional.

The second indictment, the one you are deciding right now, was brought by Todd Blanche. Another former personal criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He is now serving as the acting Attorney General because Trump fired Pam Bondi on April second of this year for not being aggressive enough in pursuing his political enemies.

I want you to hold that fact in your hands for a moment. The President of the United States fired his Attorney General for refusing to weaponize the Department of Justice fast enough. He replaced her with his own personal defense lawyer. His own personal defense lawyer then indicted the man who once led the FBI for posting a photograph of seashells on a beach.

That is not law enforcement. That is a personal grudge wearing a Department of Justice badge.

The Bigger Case

Members of the jury, I have been a trial lawyer for forty years. I have stood in courtrooms in front of juries just like this one in case after case after case. I am going to tell you something I do not say lightly. The case in front of you is bigger than James Comey. The case in front of you is bigger than the seashells. The case in front of you is bigger than this courthouse.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects every person in this country from being jailed for criticizing the government. That right does not exist in most of the world. It does not exist in Russia. It does not exist in China. It does not exist in North Korea. It exists here because Americans, in 1791, looked across the ocean at kings who jailed their critics and said, never on our soil.

If the government can take a former FBI Director and walk him into federal court for a photograph of shells on a beach, the government can do it to anyone. The government can do it to your pastor for a sermon the President did not like. The government can do it to your neighbor for a yard sign. The government can do it to you for a post on your phone.

The boot does not check membership cards once the precedent is set. Once the door is open, every American walks through it.

You twelve are the door.

That is not me being dramatic. That is the design of the American jury. The Founders did not trust prosecutors. The Founders did not trust judges. The Founders did not trust the President. The Founders trusted twelve ordinary citizens, pulled out of their jobs and their lives, sat in a box, and asked to look at the evidence and to do justice.

You are the last line of defense between a citizen and the power of the federal government. Today, you are the only line of defense.

What You Do Now

The judge is going to give you instructions. The judge is going to send you back into the deliberation room with the verdict form. On that form, you will see two charges. Threatening the President. Transmitting a threat.

The government had the burden of proof. The government had to prove every element of every charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond a reasonable doubt. Not maybe. Not probably. Not it could be read that way. Beyond a reasonable doubt.

The government did not meet that burden on the photograph. The government did not meet that burden on the caption. The government did not meet that burden on the deletion. The government did not meet that burden on the follow up post that said “I oppose violence of any kind.” The government did not meet its burden on a single element of a single charge.

When you walk into that deliberation room, you do the thing every juror in American history has had the right to do. You look at the evidence. You apply the law. You return the only verdict the evidence supports.

Not guilty on count one. Not guilty on count two.

Please remember what you heard during trial from the constitutional law professor about equal rights and due process in this country. It was his reference about what Thomas Jefferson’s wrote in his letter to Thomas Paine:

“I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”

You are that jury. You are the twelve people Thomas Jefferson was thinking of when he wrote those words.

It’s time.

It’s time you send a message that travels straight from this courthouse to the Department of Justice and lands on the desk of the men who brought this case. The message is simple. The message is constitutional. The message is American.

You do not get to do this in our country. You do not get to indict a citizen for a photograph. You do not get to criminalize a political slogan. You do not get to use the Department of Justice as a personal weapon against the people the President does not like.

Not in this courthouse. Not in this district. Not in this country. Not on our watch.

James Comey served this country. He led the FBI. He stood up to power on more than one occasion and from more than one administration. Today he stands accused of a federal felony for taking a photograph on a beach. He is innocent. He is innocent because the evidence proves he is innocent. He is innocent because the law requires you to find him innocent. He is innocent because the Constitution of the United States demands you find him innocent.

Send him home. Send him back to his family. Send him back to his beach walks. Send a message to the Department of Justice, every prosecutor in this country and yes, the president of the United States, that the First Amendment still means something in an American courtroom.

Return a verdict of not guilty on both counts. Walk out of here knowing you did the job the Founders trusted you to do. Walk out of here knowing twelve ordinary Americans, on this day, in this courtroom, stood between a citizen and a government that forgot its limits.

Thank you.

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