Former FBI Director James Comey said he does not expect the Trump administration to pursue any further action against him over an Instagram post that some, including President Donald Trump, interpreted as a call to assassinate the commander-in-chief.
In his first public comments since posting an image of seashells arranged to spell “86 47,” Comey told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace that he finds it “hard to have regret” over a post he still views as “totally innocent,” calling it “crazy” that anyone would interpret it as an incitement to violence.
“I don’t know how we ended up here,” the ex-FBI chief claimed regarding the incident that put him on the Secret Service’s radar. “It never occurred to me it was any kind of controversial thing, but that’s the time we live in.” Comey further explained that when he came across the shell arrangement on the beach, he interpreted it as “some kind of political message” referencing the 47th president, and said it was his wife who encouraged him to take a photo of it.
“We stood over it and I said, ‘I think it’s some kind of political message,’ and she said, ‘”86? when I was a server’ — she did a lot of working in restaurants — ‘meant to remove an item from the menu when you ran out of ingredients,’” Comey said. “And I said, ‘Well, to me, as a kid, it always meant to leave a place, to ditch a place.’ I said, ‘That’s really clever.’”
“So then she said, ‘You should take a picture of that.’ And I did, and I posted it on my Instagram account and thought nothing more of it,” the former FBI director, whom Trump fired for malfeasance and who was implicated as guiding the “Trump-Russia collusion” hoax, continued.
“I heard through her that people were saying it was some sort of a call for assassination, which is crazy,” the former FBI head continued. “But I took it down. Even if I think it’s crazy, I don’t want to be associated with violence of any kind.”
When asked about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s assertion that he should be jailed over the post, the FBI chief-turned-crime novelist said the idea was “ridiculous.” He added: “I hope people know enough about that particular person that they understand where it’s coming from. It says something more depressing about the leadership of our current administration. And I just shrug because that’s ridiculous.”
Trump, who survived two high-profile assassination attempts, including the July 13, 2024, Butler, Pa., attempt in which a bullet grazed his right ear, viewed Comey’s post as a call to take him out.
“He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday. “If you’re the FBI director, and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination,’ and it says it loud and clear.”
