Comey interviewed by the Secret Service over '86 47' social media post
[May 17, 2025]
By REBECCA SANTANA and ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey was interviewed by the
Secret Service on Friday about a social media post that Republicans
insisted was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.
The interview was part of an ongoing Trump administration investigation
and was expected to help authorities assess the purpose and intent of
the post and whether Comey intended to communicate a threat to the
president, which he has flatly denied. Any decision on whether charges
should be filed would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump said
Friday, though there's a high bar in proving that comments or posts
amount to direct threats of violence.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that
Comey had been interviewed and said she would “take all measures
necessary to ensure the protection” of Trump. The Secret Service is part
of the Department of Homeland Security. An interview is a standard part
of an investigation into comments perceived as potentially threatening
but does not suggest that charges are being considered.
At issue is an Instagram post from Thursday in which Comey wrote “cool
shell formation on my beach walk” under a picture of seashells that
appeared to form the shapes for “86 47.”
Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is
slang meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.”
It notes: “Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension
of the previous ones, with the meaning of ‘to kill.’ We do not enter
this sense, due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
Numerous Trump administration officials, including Noem, asserted that
Comey was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. FBI
Director Kash Patel said the bureau was also supporting the
investigation.
Asked about it Friday during a Fox News interview, Trump said: “He knew
exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the
FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant
assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”
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Former FBI director James Comey gestures while speaking at Harvard
University's Institute of Politics' JFK Jr. Forum in Cambridge,
Mass., Feb. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
He deflected a question on what he thought should happen, saying the
decision would be up to Bondi.
The post was deleted Thursday not long after it was made, with Comey
subsequently writing: “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 associate those numbers with violence.
Trump and Comey have had a fraught dynamic dating back nearly a
decade.
Comey was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having
been appointed by then-President Barack Obama and serving before
that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W.
Bush’s administration.
But the relationship was strained from the start, including after
Comey resisted a request by Trump at a private dinner to pledge his
personal loyalty to the president -- an overture that so unnerved
the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous
memorandum.
Trump fired Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into
potential ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.
That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller,
would ultimately find that while Russia interfered in the 2016
election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was
insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.
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