A new court exhibit in the federal criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey reveals that an unnamed relative sent a blistering text message to his wife, Patrice Comey, blasting them over his May 2025 Instagram post of seashells arranged to read “86 47,” calling it “a call for violence” against President Donald Trump.
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The seashell “assassination threat” trial is scheduled to begin on October 21, 2026, in New Bern, North Carolina.
The relative, citing “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” wrote: “I have held my tongue for a long time, but I just can’t do it anymore. You guys have really gone off the deep end over the years with your TDS. ’86 47′ is a call for violence no matter how you spin it. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Comey is a longtime critic of President Trump, who fired him as FBI director in 2017.
The relative’s message further accused the couple of hypocrisy, stating, “I am thoroughly embarrassed to have ever defended the absolute coward that is your husband. You and Jim are some of the least accepting, most hypocritical people I’ve had the displeasure of knowing. I hope Jim goes to jail for his crimes.”
Comey maintains the message was political hyperbole using restaurant slang for “removing an item,” but the Department of Justice has collected evidence suggesting otherwise.
An additional court document reveals Patrice Comey sent her husband a Google screenshot of a nonviolent definition of the term “86” two minutes before Comey posted the alleged threat against President Trump, indicating they knew his post could be construed as a threat and were searching for plausible deniability.
The exhibits support federal prosecutors’ allegations that the fired FBI director committed stochastic terrorism by deliberately posting inflammatory rhetoric in mass media to incite violence.
The Justice Department is using Comey’s fictional thriller novel, “FDR Drive” to prove he committed stochastic terrorism when he posted the “8647” seashell message.
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Prosecutors argued in a new court filing late Tuesday night that the post was a coded message to kill President Trump, noting that the book features a right-wing character who used similar coded messages to incite violence against enemies while avoiding direct responsibility.
“It’s where a charismatic leader jacks people up, but through the wonder of the Internet, avoids a direct connection to what comes next,” Comey reportedly wrote of his book, which came out just five days after he posted the alleged seashell threat.
“He knows an attack will follow his words but he closes his eyes so he can say he wasn’t part of it,” Comey continued. “People are susceptible to [social media] messages that offer a sense of purpose through violence,” Comey added helpfully, because those messages are “in your pocket reaching you constantly through your buzzing phone [i]t’s an order of magnitude more effective and more dangerous.”
“On May 15, 2025, a charismatic leader named James Comey, through the wonder of the internet, posted a coded message to his followers meaning ‘kill’ or ‘get rid of’ (a euphemism for ‘kill’) President Trump,’” the filing in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina stated.
The filing was in response to a filing by Comey’s lawyers seeking to dismiss the indictment against him on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution.
“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” U.S. Attorney W. Ellis Boyle’s office said.
Federal prosecutors also reportedly argued in a court filing this week that “there is reason to doubt” Comey’s story he just happened to stumble on an “86 47” seashell formation while walking with his wife on the Emerald Island, North Carolina beach. The shell formation was allegedly located behind a sand dune in a spot beachcombers would not easily discover, and according to the prosecutors, “there is no evidence that anyone else arranged, photographed, or even saw the shells.”
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