Comey alleges Trump pushed prosecution over ‘8647’ seashell post

Lawyers for former FBI director James Comey alleged on Tuesday that US Secret Service agents illegally surveilled Comey, Donald Trump requested regular updates into the investigation, and law enforcement turned to ChatGPT and a known mafia killer as they scrambled to find justification for criminally charging Comey for posting a picture of seashells that spelled out “8647”.

The claims were laid out in a motion to dismiss a criminal case the US Department of Justice filed against Comey in April, in which it said the post by Comey – whom Trump fired in his first term – was a threat on the US president’s life.

In the motion filed on Tuesday in federal court in North Carolina, Comey’s lawyers said the case should be dismissed for vindictive and selective prosecution.

“The government had initially investigated Mr. Comey’s seashells post, but that investigation appeared to be going nowhere until Mr [Todd] Blanche and US Attorney Ellis Boyle reinvigorated it,” Comey’s lawyers wrote. “The ensuing indictment is not based on a goodfaith application of the law to the facts; instead, it effectuates a yearslong campaign by the President to use the criminal process to punish Mr Comey for his protected speech and because of the President’s deep-seated animosity.”

Comey filed a separate motion earlier this week, seeking dismissal of the case on grounds that the post was protected speech and not a “true threat” against the president.

Trump has long fumed over the way Comey handled the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election while director of the FBI. Comey has also been an outspoken critic of Trump.

The justice department also indicted Comey last year in a separate case, claiming he had lied to US Congress. Those charges, which were seen as thin, were tossed out after a judge ruled the prosecutor handling them had been unlawfully appointed.

Comey told investigators he came across the formation of shells while on vacation with his wife in eastern North Carolina in May 2025. The phrase “86” is often used as shorthand to get rid of something, while Trump is currently serving as the 47th US president, and Comey posted the photo to Instagram.

Comey later deleted the photo, saying he didn’t know it could be interpreted as a violent threat. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Comey and his wife, Patrice, voluntarily spoke with Secret Service investigators after the incident. Internal Secret Service documents show that Trump was requesting updates on the investigation as it was ongoing. Even though Comey agreed to a voluntary interview in Washington, a Secret Service supervisor was asked about the possibility of tracking Comey’s phone on his drive back from Washington to North Carolina through an “exigency” request without a warrant.

The supervisor said it was a “bad idea”, according to their notes that were attached to the motion.

“To declare an exigency exemption, we needed to believe that there is an imminent threat to life or limb,” the supervisor wrote. “At that time we did not believe that anyone’s life was in immediate danger and legally it was a bad idea to ping the phone.”

The supervisor wrote another agent agreed with him, but said the Secret Service might do it anyway. The next day, the supervisor wrote a note saying the “#3 guy at DOJ” wanted to ping the cellphone with an exigency request. The notes do not say the name of the official.

Comey’s phone ultimately was tracked and the couple was also followed as they drove back from North Carolina, Patrick Fitzgerald, his attorney, said in a sworn affidavit.

Documents included in the filing also lay out how law enforcement officials were unable to confirm that the term “86” was one that implied violence.

Secret Service agents interviewed an unidentified person who knew the Comeys, but said they had not talked to them in several years and hoped the former FBI director went to jail. After telling agents they initially believed the term “86” meant something on a menu, they came to believe it was a violent threat after hearing Rudy Giuliani claim Comey had worked on cases where the term “86” meant kill.

The FBI searched records related to the federal case against mobster John Gambino, which Comey handled when he was a federal prosecutor for references to “86”, according to the motion. There were no references to it. The FBI also conducted a broader search of all of its records going back decades for the term and the results were inconclusive.

After the indictment was filed against Comey in April, Comey’s lawyers said, law enforcement officials were still hunting for evidence that Comey would have understood the term “86” to be a violent one. They interviewed two former FBI agents who worked on mafia cases, who said they were familiar with the term, but could not say definitively that it would have been used violently by the mafia.

Agents also turned to ChatGPT and Google AI to search for meanings of the term “86”. Neither returned definitive results.

Officials also interviewed Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano, one-time underboss in the Gambino crime family, who confessed to nearly 20 murders, to try to build a case against Comey, the filing says. Gravano was a cooperating witness in the Gambino case Comey prosecuted. He told agents that while he believed it meant “to get rid of someone” he did not recall ever discussing the term with Comey, Comey’s lawyers said.

Gravano, a podcaster who has praised Trump, told investigators that he interpreted Comey’s photo to mean “let’s kill Trump,” but he did not take it to mean Comey personally was going to kill Trump, Comey’s lawyers wrote.