James Comey, who was the FBI director between 2013-17, is under investigation after Republicans construed his now-deleted social media post as an assassination threat targeting President Donald Trump.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

Taking to his Instagram, Comey shared an image of seashells. As they appeared to spell out ‘8647,’ he captioned the post: “Cool Shell formation on my beach walk.” With Trump being the 47th US president, and the number 86 being a slang term, which means “to throw out” or “to get rid of,” and has also been associated with “to kill,” the POTUS’ MAGA affiliates couldn’t help but draw attention to the alleged worrisome post.

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According to the Mirriam-Webster traces it roots to several sources, like the 1930s soda-counter slang, the military, the newsroom and even the arts. “To kill” is the most recent adoption of the slang term, which has come to mean different things in various contexts. The association with the fatal end often comes from the numbers representing the perceived dimension of a standard grave: 8 feet by 6 feet. Although not all graved bear these dimensions, the belief is tied to the idiom “six-feet-under,” which in turn, is commonly believed to be linked to the 1665 Great Plague of London. At the time, six feet was taken as the minimum depth of a grave.

’86’ has long been associated with rejection as well. Iconic punk rock band Green Day’s 1995 song “86” serves a prime example of the same, as it explores the group’s sentiments of being kicked out of a music community they believed to be their home. A similar sensibility is explored in Nicolas Cage’s 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, wherein a bartender tells his character, “Stop f***ing with me! I can 86 you anytime I want to. Hey, I don’t give a f*** what you do,” insinuating that the protagonist will be kicked out of the premises.

Former FBI director James Comey deletes post, denies ‘murder threat’ claims

The Ex-FBI leader eventually shrugged off the claims, saying that he opposed violence. By deleting the post, he insinuated that he never meant to incite any threats against Donald Trump. In a follow-up message, he revealed that he got rid of the post as he “assumed [the sea shells] were a political message”. He asserted, “I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. t never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

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FBI’s Kash Patel speaks out

The current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Indian-origin Kash Patel, subsequently took to his X account to address the social media conspiracy theory. Announcing that the FBI was aware of Comey’s social media activity, he disclosed, “We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”

Secret Service working to unravel the conspiracy theory

With the Secret Service on the case now, the agency’s spokesman Anthony Guglielmi issued a statement on X: “We vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”

The Republican leader’s son, Donald Trump Jr, accused Comey of “casually” calling for his dad’s assassination attempt.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also joined the conversation, issuing scathing remarks: “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of Trump.” She affirmed to join forces with the Secret Service for the investigation.

Conservative activist Laura Loomer also labelled the ’86 47′ pic as “a call for the assassination of President Trump by the former FBI Director!”