Politics

The Rookie Prosecutor Who Built the Comey Seashell Case Just Stepped Down

By Mike Harper · June 4, 2026

The federal criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey — built around a photograph of seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to read “86 47” — is still heading to trial in October. The prosecutor who built it is not heading there with it.

A notice of substitution filed Friday in the Eastern District of North Carolina removed Assistant US Attorney Matthew Petracca from the Comey case without explanation. Assistant US Attorney Timothy Severo is listed as his replacement. The two-page filing requested Petracca’s removal from the court docket and offered no reason for the change.

The absence of an explanation is itself notable, because Petracca’s presence in the case was itself notable from the beginning.

Petracca was a Republican county committeeman in New Jersey before W. Ellis Boyle — the Trump-appointed US Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina — hired him as an assistant US attorney specifically to work on the Comey indictment. He had been on the job for only a few months when he presented the case to a federal grand jury, which indicted Comey in late April on two counts that accused the former FBI director of “making threats to harm” the president by posting the seashell photograph.

Two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that Petracca had considered quitting the DOJ entirely before ultimately being removed from the case. He also quietly dropped off other criminal cases in the Eastern District of North Carolina in recent days, according to separate court filings.

The case he is leaving behind is one of the most widely criticized federal prosecutions in recent memory. Joe Rogan — who endorsed Trump — called the indictment “nuts.” Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who has been a consistent Comey critic, wrote that he would “frankly prefer to crawl into one of Comey’s conversant shells than write this column” defending the prosecution — but he did it anyway, on First Amendment grounds. A federal judge has already granted Comey’s request for a trial delay, pushing the proceedings to October 2026. Comey’s defense team is preparing multiple motions to dismiss the indictment entirely, due July 28.

The photograph at the center of the case shows seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to spell “86 47.” The prosecution’s theory is that “86” is known to law enforcement as a term for assassination — a reading Comey has flatly denied was his intent. “86” is widely understood as restaurant slang for removing an item. Comey said he was referring to the idea of voting Trump out of office — the 47th president — in the 2026 midterms.

Comey was previously indicted by the same DOJ on separate charges that a federal judge dismissed. This is the second indictment. The case is the second time the Trump administration has brought federal criminal charges against the man who led the FBI investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference. The trial is in October.

The prosecutor who brought the second case is now gone.