OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:52 AM – Thursday, May 15, 2025
The United States Secret Service (USSS) has initiated an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey following allegations that he incited violence against President Donald Trump in a now-deleted Instagram post.
The controversy arose after Comey, who was dismissed by Trump early in his first term presidency, shared an image featuring seashells arranged to form the numbers “8647.”
The number “86” is colloquially associated with the act of removing or eliminating something or someone — such as when a patron is “86’d” from a bar or restaurant after being too intoxicated or rowdy.
Therefore, the phrase “86 47” appears to subtly convey a coded message advocating for the removal of the 47th President Trump.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” the former FBI chief captioned the post.
Comey has publicly expressed ongoing criticism of Trump, particularly after being dismissed from his position by him in 2017. In his book “A Higher Loyalty” and in various interviews, Comey described Trump as morally unfit for office while criticizing his leadership style.
Officials from the Trump administration, along with the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., construed Comey’s post as an implicit death threat directed toward the GOP commander-in-chief.
Comey, who initiated the investigation into collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign—an inquiry predicated on fabricated “intelligence” from the Steele dossier—now claims that he was unaware that some could interpret the post as incitement to violence. The Steele dossier, a document containing unverified allegations about Trump, was indirectly funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey said in a statement. “ I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”
“It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts