Right-leaning podcaster Joe Rogan continued his turn away from President Donald Trump in his latest podcast episode, slamming the Justice Department for its latest indictment of former FBI Director James Comey as “nuts” and saying it sets a “crazy precedent.”
Joe Rogan in the Oval Office of the White House on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
The Washington Post via Getty Images
Comey was indicted Tuesday over a photo of seashells he posted to social media that were arranged to spell out “86 47,” which the Justice Department has characterized as a threat against the president, interpreting “86” as the slang term for doing away with something and “47” as a reference to Trump, the 47th president of the United States.
Rogan, the country’s most popular podcaster and a one-time strong supporter of Trump, said prosecuting someone for a social media post could errode First Amendment protections and said it's "just silly."
The podcaster argued that considering the post a threat to the president was a stretch, adding, "If the guy really was dirty, you should have something on him other than this seashell picture.”
Rogan’s comments piled onto other conservatives who’ve lambasted the indictment.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said “I can’t find any example of where 86-ing has anything to do with criminal intent . . . I don’t even know if a first semester law student would judge this as having merit,” he told NOTUS reporter Igor Bobic.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, a staunch Trump ally, told reporters on Wednesday the indictment was a “stretch,” adding “you can indict anybody for anything.”
Conservative legal scholar and Fox News analyst Andy McCarthy also slammed the indictment in a piece for the National Review on Tuesday, calling it “even more absurd than the previous indictment” and alleging it “fabricates a crime.”
Republican political consultant Whit Ayres told the Washington Post, “that’s exactly the opposite of what most Americans would like to see the president and the Department of Justice focused on,” and Barrett Mason, a GOP strategist in Arizona, told the paper, “no Republican wants to run on ‘I stand with Donald Trump’s retribution tour,’” with both strategists noting the economy and inflation should instead be the focus headed into midterms.
Some Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., cheered the indictment. Hawley told Fox News, “I only wish that they could indict him for a whole host of other things while we’re at it.”
“That’s a mob term for killing,” Trump told reporters Wednesday about Comey’s social media post. “The mob uses that term to say when they want to kill them, they say ‘86 the son of a gun.’” When asked if he believed Comey’s post endangered him, Trump said, “probably.”
Comey posted the photo last May and later removed it amid Republican outrage. He told MSNBC he didn’t consider the term “86” to be a reference to violence and instead thought it meant “to leave a place, to ditch a place.” The Department of Homeland Security and FBI opened probes into the post, and Comey said he spoke to the Secret Service multiple times about it. He was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in North Carolina for making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat across state lines, and he turned himself in on Wednesday. Comey said he is “innocent” and “not afraid” in a video message posted to social media reacting to the indictment. He was also indicted in September on charges of lying to Congress, but the case was dismissed.
Justice Department Indicts Former FBI Director James Comey Over ‘86 47’ Instagram Post (Forbes)
Here’s What James Comey Said That Got Him Indicted—And The Evidence That Hurts Trump’s Case (Forbes)
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