Comey says Secret Service surveilled him illegally at Trump's request

Lawyers for James Comey allege the U.S. Secret Service "knowingly conducted illegal electronic surveillance" of the former FBI director at the request of a high-level official on the same day President Donald Trump claimed Comey was threatening assassination by posting a photo of seashells on a North Carolina beach forming the numbers "8647," a new court filing says.

The filing on Tuesday night also says a Secret Service supervisor said the warrantless surveillance of Comey in May 2025 was "legally questionable" but that the agency "might do it anyway."

And it alleges that the Secret Service conducted the surveillance after the "number three" person at the Department of Justice asked for it. The filing says that the surveillance included keeping tabs on Comey and his wife as they returned to Washington, D.C., from North Carolina, "including as they stopped to visit the grave of their deceased son."

The filing in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina asks a judge to dismiss, on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution, the indictment issued in April against Comey, which accuses him of threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce with the "8647" photo that he posted on Instagram.

Comey's lawyers wrote that, "Behind the scenes, the Secret Service was closely coordinating with the DOJ and the President himself."