FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday the arrest of another individual accused of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Peter Stinson, a Virginia resident and former U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant, has been charged with making threats to kill the president, according to court documents obtained by Fox News. Stinson served in the Coast Guard from 1988 until 2021. During his military career, he was a sharpshooter and also worked as an instructor for FEMA.
Some of the threats detailed in an affidavit unsealed Friday draw disturbing parallels between an attack on Trump and the targeted killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione.
On social media, Stinson posted on May 9 that Trump needed to be “[L]uigied,” while other messages hinted at his ability to acquire guns, poison, or knives to carry out a more effective plot against the president. Stinson replied to another user at one point, saying he doesn’t have the “necessary skills” to get away with Trump’s murder, the NY Post reported.
Prosecutors also presented social media posts showing Stinson’s fixation on the number 8647—the same number previously posted by former FBI Director James Comey before he deleted it. Patel blamed Comey for inspiring Stinson to contemplate violent action against the president.
“This is a guy who threatened President Trump’s life using the ’86 47? language — the exact kind of copy cat law enforcement is now frequently dealing with after former Director Comey’s destructive Instagram debacle,” Patel wrote on X.
Prosecutors wrote in the affidavit that Stinson’s suggestion to “8647” President Trump is “likely in reference to an Instagram post made by former FBI Director James Comey.”
“The post by Comey was interpreted in the news media as a violent threat to President Trump and prompted an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Secret Service. STINSON has since made 13 additional posts on Bluesky including the text, ‘8647’,” the document states.
Stinson, they add, “has self-identified as a member of ANTIFA,” the nebulous network of black-clad progressive rioters who taunted President Trump in the streets for much of his first administration. On Feb. 2, Stinson allegedly wrote, “Sure. This is war. Sides will be drawn. Antifa always wins in the end. Violence is inherently necessary.”