Ex-FBI Director Comey Charged With Threatening Trump's Life
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Bernama-dpa) – Former FBI director James Comey has been charged with making threats to harm United States (US) President Donald Trump, German Press Agency (dpa) reported, citing the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday.
The charges relate to a post on Comey's Instagram account from May 2025 showing sea shells spelling out the numbers "86 47" and captioned "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."
The DoJ said that "a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret [the post] as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States."
Comey is accused of "knowingly and wilfully" making a threat to kill or harm the US president and of transmitting a message "that contained a threat to kill the President."
Trump alleged in an interview with Fox News at the time that "86" was slang for assassination and "47" was a reference to his being the 47th president of the US. Comey "knew exactly what that meant," Trump told Fox.
The former FBI director faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference. When asked, he did not elaborate on how prosecutors intend to prove that Comey had malicious intent – or why the investigation took nearly a year.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “86” is an archaic expression meaning, "to throw out," "to get rid of," or "to refuse service to."
Comey deleted the post and later wrote on Instagram that he had "assumed [that the shells] were a political message. I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence."
Comey had previously been indicted by the Trump administration for allegedly making false statements. A federal court later dismissed the charges.
Comey had led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, which Trump won, examining possible links between Moscow and members of the Trump campaign. Trump fired Comey in 2017 amid the probe.
-- BERNAMA-dpa
