Judge Assigned to Fired FBI Director James Comey’s Case

Judge Flanagan, appointed by George W. Bush, is considered right-leaning, according to Ballotpedia.

Flanagan received a random case assignment after a grand jury indicted Comey on charges alleging that he threatened Trump by posting a photo on Instagram that featured seashells arranged in an “86 47” pattern in May 2024.

She has presided over thousands of cases throughout her tenure as an Article III judge. The U.S. Senate confirmed her as a federal district court judge in July 2003.

Before this, she served as a federal magistrate judge and worked at the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Washington, D.C., before it merged with Dentons, the ABA Journal reports.

In an interview last weekend, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche made it clear that Comey’s indictment was the result of a year-long investigation and had much more to it than his seashells photo posted to Instagram.

“Every case requires an investigation, and what you just showed is one part of that investigation. What you just showed is the Instagram post,” he told Fox News.

“Rest assured that the career Assistant United States Attorneys in North Carolina, the career FBI agents, the career Secret Service agents that investigated this case didn’t just look at the Instagram post and walk away,” he continued.

“That’s why you saw an indictment last week, notwithstanding the fact that it was last May that the post was made. So I am not permitted to get into details of what the grand jury heard or found, as you know, but rest assured that it’s not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted,” Blanche added.