A pair of federal agencies are investigating former FBI Director James Comey over a possible threat via social media against President Donald Trump, who fired him eight years ago, officials said Thursday.
Comey said that he had not been aware of the coded threat message in his post—a picture of seashells on a beach arranged into numbers—which he later deleted.
Noem’s statement came in response to an Instagram post by Comey that sparked a social media firestorm; more than 213,000 posts mentioned Comey’s name on X as the controversy gained traction and widespread media coverage.
Comey had written, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” to describe a photograph. It depicted small seashells that had been arranged to form two sets of numbers: “86”—a slang term meaning “to get rid of”—and “47,” the number of Trump’s current presidential term.
Comey later deleted the post and wrote a second post, saying he assumed the numbers constituted “a political message.”
“I didn’t realize some folks associated those numbers with violence,” he wrote. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Neither post indicated where the photo was taken or whether Comey knew who had configured the seashells into those numbers.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, said she didn’t believe Comey’s claim to be ignorant of the mob-related “lingo.”
“I’m very concerned for the president’s life,” Gabbard said. “And James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and should be put behind bars for this.”
“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 statement said.
The Epoch Times has contacted the White House and Comey for further comment.
