Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was pressed by a reporter to explain the difference between free speech and an “actual threat of violence” against President Donald Trump during a press conference where he discussed the new indictment against former FBI Director James Comey.

Blanche said he did not want to go into too many details about the indictment, but that the “conduct” involved happened on May 15, 2025.

That was the same day Comey posted an image on Instagram of sea shells on a beach that read “86 47”; Comey captioned the photo “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” That post was read by many to be an endorsement of killing Trump, whom is the 47th president.

“It is clear you don’t want to talk specifics today, but to the American public, can you at least give you us a sense of whether you have evidence, or hard evidence, that shows that Mr. Comey intended for President Trump to be harmed?” a male reporter asked Blanche.

The reporter then added, “secondarily, for critics who say where does free speech end and an actual threat of violence begin?”

Blanche scoffed at the second question.

“I don’t know what critics say that, especially today. But it’s not a very difficult line to look at, and it’s not in my mind a difficult line for one to crossover one way or another,” Blanche said. “You are not allowed to threaten the president of the United States of America. That’s not my decision — that’s Congress’ decision, in a statute that they passed, that we charge multiple times a year.”

Blanche continued:

And so whether there is a defense as you just described, maybe. Maybe there is. But the government will have evidence. I am not going to talk about the evidence we have. It is unfair to him, it is unfair to the prosecutors, but it’s enough to say the grand jury returned an indictment.”

The new indictment comes after a case against Comey was dropped last year. That indictment was based on alleged false statements made to Congress.

Watch above via Fox News.

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