Former FBI Director James Comey asked a judge to drop the charges against him, arguing that his “86 47” post was political speech, not a threat against President Donald Trump.
The charges against Comey stem from a social media post in 2025 that featured an arranged set of seashells on a North Carolina beach spelling out “86 47” — 86 possibly meaning “eliminate” and 47 potentially meaning President Trump. While the phrase “86” does not inherently mean violence — it allegedly originated as a restaurant term — people immediately criticized the post for tangentially implying violence, and Comey deleted the post as a result.
In April, the a grand jury delivered a two-count indictment against Comey, charging that he “did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, the President of the United States, in that he publicly posted a photograph on the internet social media site Instagram which depicted seashells arranged in a pattern making out ’86 47,’ which a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”
On Monday, Comey’s lawyers argued that the government cannot prove that the seashell arrangement constituted a threat, adding that the phrase generally means “get rid of” or “eject” while noting it has appeared on signs at protests.
“But the government now singles out Mr. Comey to prosecute one of the President’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition,” his attorneys wrote. “That attempt to suppress core political speech contravenes both the statutes at issue and the First Amendment.”
“Even if ’86 47′ could implausibly be read to suggest violence, a reasonable observer would still understand Mr. Comey’s post as mere political hyperbole, not a true threat,” they continued. “The Supreme Court has rejected threats prosecutions based on speech far more directly threatening than Mr. Comey’s seashells post here.”
As noted by PBS News, a previous “case in Virginia accusing Comey of lying to Congress was dismissed last November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged him and another Trump adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was illegally appointed to the job.”
