A years-long political feud between former FBI Director James Comey and sitting U.S. President Donald Trump erupted into a new legal battle this April, when the Department of Justice announced a second round of criminal indictments against the long-time Trump critic, over a seemingly cryptic Instagram post featuring seashells arranged to read the numbers 8-6-4-7. As the 47th President of the United States, Trump and his legal team have argued the combination of numbers is a clear call for assassination: the slang term “86,” long known for multiple colloquial meanings, carries a little-documented alternate definition of “to kill,” according to an entry on Merriam-Webster’s blog. Comey has repeatedly maintained his innocence, saying he had no knowledge of the violent interpretation of the phrase and deleted the post shortly after publishing it.
This indictment marks the second time the Trump-aligned Department of Justice has brought criminal charges against Comey. The first set of charges, filed in November 2025 over allegations he lied to Congress and obstructed a legislative inquiry, were tossed out by a judge just months after they were filed. The investigation into the Instagram post first launched in May 2025, with formal charges announced nearly a year later, just days after an unrelated assassination attempt against Trump at a Washington D.C. hotel. Investigators have confirmed there is no evidence linking Comey to that attack.
Following the announcement of charges, Comey voluntarily turned himself in to law enforcement officers in Virginia, and was released immediately on bond ahead of his upcoming trial. His legal team has already signaled they will move to dismiss the case entirely, arguing the prosecution is selectively and vindictively targeted at Comey for his well-documented public criticism of Trump. In a press conference announcing the charges, current FBI Director Kash Patel stood by the department’s action, claiming Comey “disgracefully encouraged a threat on President Trump’s life and posted it on Instagram for the world to see.” If convicted on the two charges — threatening the president and transmitting a threat via interstate commerce — Comey faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison per count. The case has been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, where Comey was reportedly located when he posted the image.
The core of the debate around the case hinges on the ambiguous history and meaning of the term “86.” Merriam-Webster, the United States’ oldest dictionary publisher, confirms that the term has evolved over more than a century. Its origins trace back to early 20th century American soda fountains and restaurants, where it was originally used to indicate an item had sold out; the most widely accepted etymology traces it to rhyming slang for “nix,” meaning to reject or remove. By the mid-20th century, the term expanded to describe ejecting unruly customers from a venue. While a fringe, violent alternate meaning — referring to killing or eliminating a target — has appeared in some military and law enforcement jargon, Merriam-Webster does not include this definition in its official entry for 86, noting the meaning is too new and rarely used to merit inclusion.
Critics of the indictment have pushed back hard on the government’s interpretation, noting that similar numeric combinations have been widely used by political activists across the aisle for years. When Joe Biden held office as the 46th U.S. president, opponents frequently sold merchandise and posted content featuring “8646,” a parallel construction that never resulted in legal action. Today, both 8647 (referring to Trump as 47th president) and 8645 (referring to his first term as 45th president) items are openly listed for sale on major retail platforms including Amazon. Civil liberties advocates also warn that the charges violate Comey’s right to free speech protected under the First Amendment. In an official statement, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) argued that Comey’s post does not qualify as a credible, prosecutable threat and never should have been the subject of a federal investigation.
The indictment also comes amid a broader crackdown on Trump critics by the current administration, coming just one day after Trump publicly called for popular late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke that Trump supporters claimed encouraged violence against the president. Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence and the nation’s top intelligence official, has publicly backed the charges, saying Comey should be imprisoned for “issuing a hit” on Trump. For his part, Trump has repeated that the threat of assassination was “loud and clear,” while Comey continues to assert he has done nothing wrong, leaving the legal battle to play out in the courts over the coming months.