Federal prosecutors moved ahead with an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey even after, according to reporting, the FBI had already concluded important parts of the government’s theory were unproven or unsupported. At the center of the dispute is the meaning of “86”—a shorthand prosecutors and investigators tied to alleged violent intent after Comey posted a photo of seashells and referenced “86 47.” The case has now become a vehicle for competing narratives about language, context, and credibility, with defense filings challenging how investigators built their threat interpretation.
In the underlying account of the evidentiary dispute, the term “86” is described as U.S. slang commonly used to mean to get rid of or to refuse service—particularly in restaurant and bar settings where it can indicate an item is out of stock or a customer is barred from being served. That definition, drawn from a Google search shown to Comey shortly after a “86” related exchange, appears in an affidavit described by Lawfare. The reporting says that around 3:12 p.m., Comey received a screenshot texted from Patrice, stating what “86” meant in that slang sense, and that two minutes later Comey posted the seashell photo to Instagram with a caption about his beach walk. Lawfare summarizes how this timeline undercuts the prosecution’s claim that the post was a coded threat.
Defense arguments, as described in the same body of reporting, also focus on investigators’ attempts to establish a broader, “mob lingo” meaning for “86.” According to Lawfare, defense filings indicate that agents, in parallel with interviews, questioned open-source AI tools—including Google AI and ChatGPT—seeking support that “86” was widely used in organized-crime contexts. The defense portrayal suggests that rather than relying on firmly established usage, investigators explored technology-assisted or secondhand sources to bolster an interpretation that would convert a common slang term into something ominously violent.
The government’s framing appears to rely on the idea that “86,” possibly in combination with “47,” would be understood as a call for violence. That interpretation is contested not only on linguistic grounds but also on whether particular witnesses or investigative claims were adequately substantiated. A separate reporting account notes that an affidavit supporting an Apple warrant (Apple, in this case, referring to the device and search process) presented a person as socially connected to Comeys and therefore alleged to have insight into what Comey “must have known.” Yet that reporting contends the affidavit omitted mention of the witness’s lack of credibility, and emphasized that the affidavit’s attempt to link “86” to organized crime violence was not successfully supported by the FBI’s own failed efforts to substantiate the connection. The Berkshire Edge further describes the affidavit as suggesting “86” was attributed to an organized crime usage involving putting someone “eight miles out of town” and “six feet under,” language meant to imply a lethal threat.
Defense attorneys say this dispute hinges on what “86 47” would have meant to Comey—particularly given his background in federal law enforcement and as a prosecutor. But the defense narrative introduces additional skepticism by challenging whether any credible organized-crime specialist supports the government’s reading. In an ABC News report, defense lawyers claimed the DOJ sought input from notorious gangster Sammy “The Bull” Gravano in connection with Comey’s case, and the defense says Gravano did not interpret Comey’s “8647” seashells post as a personal threat to President Donald Trump. ABC News reports that defense lawyers alleged Gravano told the prosecutor and an FBI agent that he did not view the post as a direct threat, undermining a key element of the prosecution theory that Comey would have understood “86” as violent.
According to ABC News, defense lawyers also described a witness who allegedly raised concerns to Comey and prompted him to remove the Instagram photo after warning it could be “a call for violence.” Agents later cited that witness’s account in a search warrant affidavit to argue the witness immediately perceived “86 47” as a violent message. But the ABC report notes that Gravano and two retired FBI agents with decades of organized crime experience did not recall the term “86” being used to reference murder, a gap defense lawyers say would weaken the argument that the alleged mob usage was well established.
In practical terms, the case now turns on competing translations of a phrase. On one side, prosecutors and investigators argue that “86 47” can be read as an encoded threat, fitting a pattern of organized-crime language and an intended message of violence. On the other, defense attorneys argue that the strongest evidence points to a far more ordinary meaning—one associated with restaurants and service—and that attempts to bridge the gap to murder-related usage were speculative, inadequately supported, or built on questionable credibility and uncertain corroboration.
The stakes extend beyond semantics. By their nature, criminal threat prosecutions depend on whether a specific interpretation of language would be reasonably understood by the accused and whether the supporting evidence is reliable. Defense lawyers appear to be pressing the claim that the FBI’s own work did not confirm the violent connotation, even as the DOJ indicted anyway. The result is a high-profile clash over how government investigators interpret codes, how affidavits characterize sources and omissions, and how—if at all—uncertain references can be transformed into criminal intent.
As litigation proceeds, the central factual record described in these reports—timing of the Instagram posting, the “86” definition presented in a search screenshot, and the disputed claims that “86” in this context meant something lethal—will likely remain pivotal. Whether the court accepts prosecutors’ reading of coded language or defense challenges to the evidentiary foundation may determine how the “seashells” photo is ultimately understood: a benign caption turned into an alleged threat, or a message prosecutors say was unmistakably violent.
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