Former FBI Director James Comey’s fate for posting what many within the administration saw as a thinly veiled threat against the life of Donald Trump could lie in the hands of one of the president’s staunchest allies, former Fox News host and judge Jeanine Pirro, whom he just appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Comey landed in hot water last week when he posted a picture of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47,” with the “86” being an old mob-era term for a “hit” and “47” taken to mean Trump, the 47th president.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in the post with a photo of the shells.
Not long after Comey’s Instagram post, he deleted it and posted an explanation claiming he thought the shells were a “political message” but that he never intended it as a threat to Trump.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he said. “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.”
Nevertheless, Comey was paid a visit and questioned about the original post by the Secret Service late last week, though it’s unclear at this point whether any charges are forthcoming. The meeting lasted for around 70 minutes, according to reports.
That said, as Fox host Jesse Waters pointed out on Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi will ultimately make the decision on whether to charge the former FBI director fired by Trump early in his first term. If she moves forward with charges, then Pirro would likely be the one to handle the prosecution.
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The president himself sounded off on Comey’s post on Friday as well, telling Fox anchor Bret Baier he is certain Comey was well aware he was posting a threat.
“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,” Trump said.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X about the incident and how seriously the agency was taking it.
“We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran,” he said. “Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox’s Watters on Friday that she believes Comey posted a threat that should land him in jail.
“Are you buying that the former FBI Director didn’t know what ’86 Trump’ meant?” host Jesse Watters asked.
“Absolutely not, Jesse,” Gabbard replied. “That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make, certainly within this context, but especially coming from a guy who’s the former Director of the FBI, a guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of 86.
“Comey himself admitted in his follow-on message that he knew that this was a political statement. Well, the only reason he knew that, Jesse, was because a little over a month ago, a bunch of anti-Trump, anti-Elon Musk protesters were proliferating the use of this 86-47 slogan, which was a veiled call to action to murder the sitting President of the United States,” she continued.
“When we have two assassination attempts on the president’s life, when we have people who look to guys like Comey, who’ve been celebrated by MSNBC and the Democrat elite and CNN as the beacon of integrity, the law and order guy, the guy who would tell the truth no matter what the consequences, this is the guy who’s issuing a hit on President Trump,” she noted.