Excitement about Instagram post
Shell threat against Trump? New charges against ex-FBI chief
Updated April 28, 2026 – 10:37 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Former FBI Director Comey posts a photo of seashells on the beach folded into numbers, alluding to President Trump. He sees this as a call for an assassination attempt – with consequences.
Former FBI chief James Comey has been charged over an Instagram post of seashells folded into four numbers on the beach. He is accused of knowingly spreading a death threat against President Donald Trump.
Comey uploaded a picture of seashells to Instagram in May 2025 that showed the numbers “86 47.” Trump, the 47th President of the USA, and his supporters interpreted this as a call for an assassination attempt.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “86” is an obsolete term that means, among other things, “to reject” or “to remove.” According to the indictment, the number combined with “47” represents a serious intent to harm Trump.
Comey deleted the post and later wrote on Instagram that he saw a political message in the shell formation. He rejected the idea that he wanted to call for violence against Trump. “I was not aware that some people associate these numbers with violence,” he wrote.
It is the second time the Trump administration has sought a lawsuit against Comey. In November, a federal court dismissed charges against President Trump’s critic based on other allegations. The court justified this in its decision by saying that the prosecutor handling the case should not have been appointed by the US Department of Justice.
Trump fired Comey in his first term in connection with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election. At the time, the FBI was investigating possible connections between Moscow and members of Trump’s campaign team.
