James Comey's lawyers say the Secret Service didn't just question their client over his photo of seashells, it swiftly looped in the president himself. In a new court filing seeking to toss a criminal case against the former FBI director, they say agents who interviewed Comey about his Instagram post of seashells arranged to say "86 47" on a North Carolina beach were instructed to send notes to Air Force One so President Trump could read them before a press conference. Internal messages cited in the filing describe the interview as a "hot topic" on the plane and say Trump made a "direct request" for a summary, the New York Times reports.
The filing describes an aggressive response that began within hours of the May 2025 post: agents phoned Comey, tailed his car from North Carolina to Virginia, and sought real-time tracking of his cellphone under an emergency process typically reserved for urgent threats. Prosecutors argue the image was a veiled call to assassinate the 47th president; Comey says "86" is restaurant shorthand for throwing someone out.
- According to the filing, agents went to great lengths to try to find evidence to back up Trump's claim that "86" is a well-known mafia term for killing somebody, the Washington Post reports. They scoured the FBI database and transcripts of mob cases Comey prosecuted decades ago and even spoke to ex-mobster Salvatore Gravano, aka "Sammy the Bull." He said a "gangster would never use that term" and he didn't see the photo as a threat to Trump, though he said Comey may have heard the term in a violent context, according to the filing.
- Agents also turned to an AI tool in their attempt to prove that "86" was a "true threat" to the president. The AI told the agents that claims it was mafia slang were an "urban legend," according to the filing.
Gravano urged agents to speak to former judge and New York mob prosecutor John Gleeson, the Post reports. "The claim that '86' is mafia jargon for 'kill' is preposterous," Gleeson wrote in an affidavit included in the filing. "If it weren't made in the context of seeking to deprive a man of his liberty, it would be laughable." Comey's lawyers called the case a retaliatory prosecution and asked the judge to examine whether grand jurors were misled, the Times reports.
- "Ample objective evidence—much of which comes directly from government officials' own public statements and admissions—establishes that the President's animus toward Mr. Comey led to this vindictive and selective prosecution," Comey's lawyers wrote in the filing.
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