Ex-FBI Director James Comey Indicted Over 86 47 ‘Assassination Threat’

Original article here

Former FBI Director James Comey has reportedly been indicted by a grand jury over a social media post many deemed as an unsubtle threat against President Donald Trump.

On May 15, 2025, Comey posted a photo of a shell formation on a sandy beach arranged to form the numbers “86 47,” and captioned the post “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Comey had been posting photos from a beach on Emerald Isle, North Carolina, at the time.

The number 86 has long been recognized as slang for kill, nix, or eliminate. The number “47” is typically used to refer to Trump, the 47th President of the United States.

“We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump,” both Patel and Bongino responded on X at the time.  “We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”

Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that Comey’s post was being viewed as an assassination threat and an appropriate investigation has been launched.

“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem said. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

Following the uproar, the disgraced G-Man deleted the post and issued a statement claiming that he, a longtime law enforcement official, didn’t realize the number “86” was associated with violence.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associated those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he wrote in a subsequent post.

Despite this, the post sparked immediate investigations by the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security after Trump claimed it was a coded threat to assassinate him.

That evening on Fox News, National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Comey should be “put behind bars” for “issuing a call to assassinate” President Donald Trump on social media.

Secret Service agents conducted an hours-long interview with Comey in Washington DC, soon afterwards, an uncommon step by the agency over a non-specific threat.

This is Comey’s second indictment by President Trump’s Department of Justice.

He was first indicted on September 25, 2025, when a federal grand jury charged Comey with making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, related to his 2020 testimony about FBI leaks concerning the Russia investigation.

He pleaded not guilty, but the case was dismissed on a technicality in November after a judge ruled that interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed.

Stay tuned for updates as the Department of Justice reportedly plans to hold a press conference at 4:00 pm ET to discuss the indictment.

Update:

During the press briefing Tuesday afternoon, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that a grand jury indicted Comey this morning on two felonies:

• Count One: Comey “knowingly and willfully made a threat to kill and inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States.”

• Count two: Comey “Knowingly and willfully transmitted an interstate commerce communication that contained a threat to kill President Trump.”

Each count contains a maximum prison sentence of ten years.

Blanche said “it’s fair to say that threatening the life of anybody is dangerous and potentially a crime; threatening the life of the President of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice.”

The Acting AG emphasized that the Justice Department prosecutes cases like this one on a regular basis and noted that while this indictment stands out because of the prominence of the defendant, “his alleged conduct is the same kind of conduct that we will never tolerate and that we will always investigate and regularly prosecute.”

According to CNN, an arrest warrant has been issued for Comey and US Marshals have been ordered by a federal judge in North Carolina to take him into custody.