Trump rejects ex-FBI director Comey’s explanation of ‘8647’ post

STEFANI REYNOLDS/POOL VIA REUTERS/FILE PHOTO

James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), testifies via videoconference during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., in September 2020. President Donald Trump accused Comey today of calling for his assassination in a coded post on social media, rejecting the former FBI director’s explanation that he was not aware of any violent connotation.

WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump accused James Comey today of calling for his assassination in a coded post on social media, rejecting the former FBI director’s explanation that he was not aware of any violent connotation.

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating an Instagram photo posted by Comey of the number 8647 formed by seashells with the comment, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

In slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the 47th president of the United States.

Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as a call to violently remove Trump from office, including through assassination.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News before leaving Abu Dhabi after a four-day Middle East trip.

“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,” he said.

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Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, took down the post after a backlash from Trump supporters.

“It never occurred to me. But I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” he said.

Comey was not available for comment on Trump’s accusation.

“He was hit so hard because people like me and they like what’s happening with our country,” Trump said in the interview excerpt. “And he’s calling for the assassination of the president.”

The “8647” and “8646” themes have been used as a political slogan and on T-shirts during the administrations of both Trump and his predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, the 46th U.S. president.

Trump said he would leave further action on the matter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and others.

U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran “is leading the investigation into this threat,” Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told Fox News on Thursday night.

Gabbard dismissed Comey’s explanation as absurd, and said the “8647” slogan has been used by anti-Trump protesters and was a veiled call to action against the sitting president.

Early in his first term, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.

Comey has been a sharp critic of his former boss, calling him “morally unfit” to lead in a 2018 interview.

Trump himself was accused of using Twitter posts to incite rioters, who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.

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