A North Carolina federal judge has delayed former FBI Director James Comey’s trial on charges he threatened President Trump until 2027, citing the gravity of the case and pending motions.
U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan ordered the delay on Friday, pushing Comey’s arraignment from its original Wednesday setting in New Bern, N.C., into January and stating the trial itself will not start until 2027 while she works through multiple motions.
Breitbart News reported the continuance follows federal charges tied to an Instagram photo of the numbers 8647 arranged in seashells on a beach. Prosecutors say the image amounted to a threat against President Donald Trump.
Federal prosecutors argue “86” is common restaurant shorthand for “get rid of,” and “47” points to Trump as the 47th president. Comey’s defense team has countered that the photo cannot be treated as “a true threat” and sought dismissal in July while also requesting more time.
Flanagan wrote in her order that the seriousness of the matter required the pause.
"The gravity of the charges, pending motions and the need to provide defense counsel additional time to prepare for trial promote need for continuance,"
the judge stated. That language matches the court’s broader finding that the ends of justice outweigh a speedy trial in this instance.
Just The News reported this marks the third delay since summer. Earlier schedules had set arraignment for June 30 with a July 15 trial, then shifted to a Wednesday arraignment with an Oct. 21 trial date. The new order places arraignment in January 2027 and the trial in February. Comey faces two federal counts of threats against the president.
Prosecutors have been blunt about how an ordinary reader would see the post.
"There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump.’"
their filing states. The defense continues to reject that reading.
Comey is a longstanding critic of Trump and was fired as FBI director in 2017. He has claimed the president is targeting him over that criticism. This is the second time a grand jury has indicted him during Trump’s second term; a judge dismissed the first case in November.
Readers following the broader record of Comey-era decisions can see related coverage of how a declassified FBI memo described Bureau actions in the days after his firing.
Flanagan’s order rests on three stated factors: the weight of the charges, the stack of unresolved motions, and the defense’s need for additional preparation. No injuries or physical harm are alleged in the case itself. The dispute centers on the Instagram image and whether it crosses the legal line into a true threat.
The original arraignment had been set for New Bern before the Friday order moved everything months later. Absolute calendar dates for the Instagram post and the precise charging documents are not detailed in the available court descriptions, but the operative effect is clear: the case will not reach trial until 2027.
Separate reporting has also tracked a federal grand jury subpoena of a longtime Comey adviser in a renewed leak probe, underscoring continued scrutiny around figures from his FBI tenure.
For a national audience, the mechanics are straightforward. An arraignment is the formal court appearance where a defendant hears the charges and enters a plea. By sliding that step into January 2027 and the trial into the following month, the court has given both sides more runway while keeping the threat counts alive.
Comey’s team asked for dismissal months ago on the “true threat” theory and simultaneously sought delay. The judge has now granted the time without dismissing the case. That leaves the former FBI director still facing federal counts while the public waits more than a year for a courtroom test of the prosecutors’ reading of 8647.
Prior coverage of the same litigation noted how a North Carolina judge already signaled the 2027 timeline as motions piled up.
Threats against a sitting president are not treated as casual speech under federal law. Whether seashell numbers on a beach meet that standard is now a question for 2027, not this fall. The court has chosen preparation and gravity over speed.
Justice delayed is still a decision. Taxpayers and lawful citizens deserve a system that takes threats against the president seriously and brings them to a verdict without endless postponement.
