Former FBI director James Comey interviewed by Secret Service over ”86 47” social media post

Former FBI director James Comey. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Former FBI director James Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service on Friday (May 16, 2025) about a social media post that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against U.S. President Donald Trump.

The interview was part of an ongoing Trump administration investigation and was expected to help authorities assess the purpose and intent of the post and whether Mr. Comey intended to communicate a threat to the President, which he has flatly denied. Any decision on whether charges should be filed would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Mr. Trump said on Friday (May 16, 2025), though there’s a high bar in proving that comments or posts amount to direct threats of violence.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr. Comey had been interviewed and said she would “take all measures necessary to ensure the protection” of Mr. Trump. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security. An interview is a standard part of an investigation into comments perceived as potentially threatening but does not suggest that charges are being considered.

At issue is an Instagram post from Thursday (May 15, 2025) in which Mr. Comey wrote “cool shell formation on my beach walk” under a picture of seashells that appeared to form the shapes for “86 47.”

Asked about it on Friday (May 16, 2025) during a Fox News interview, Mr. Trump said: “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.”

The post was deleted on Thursday (May 15, 2025) not long after it was made, with Mr. Comey subsequently writing: “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey have had a fraught dynamic dating back nearly a decade.

Mr. Comey was the FBI director when Mr. Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama and serving before that as a senior Justice Department official in President George W. Bush’s administration.

But the relationship was strained from the start, including after Mr. Comey resisted a request by Mr. Trump at a private dinner to pledge his personal loyalty to the President — an overture that so unnerved the FBI director that he documented it in a contemporaneous memorandum.

Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey in May 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Mr. Trump’s Presidential campaign. That inquiry, later taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, would ultimately find that while Russia interfered in the 2016 election and the Trump team welcomed the help, there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal collaboration.