FBI Director, James Comey: All Washed Up?

May 23, 2025

On 17th May, the BBC reported that former FBI Director, James Comey, had been interviewed by the US Secret Service. Comey had shared and then deleted a social media post which was alleged to be an incitement to violence against US President Donald Trump.

The Instagram post in question showed the numbers ‘8647’ accompanied by the comment, ‘Cool shell formation’, which when broken down can attest to the ‘86’ meaning a slang term to mean ‘to reject’ or ‘to get rid of’, but has also been used as a term meaning ‘to kill.’ The ‘47’ can relate to Trump being the 47th President.

Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News said that Comey was calling for him to be killed.

In response, Comey wrote a follow up message on Instagram saying that he had seen the shells during a walk on the beach, ‘which I assumed were a political message’.

We would question what made him ‘assume’ they were a ‘political message,’ having previously described it as a ‘cool shell formation’. Using his own words, he admitted that he only ‘assumed’ that it was a political message, indicating that he shared something by drawing attention to its ‘formation’. We would question how it was formed and by whom, and why he allegedly did not know the meaning of it?

We would ask what political message Comey thought ‘they’ (i.e. the shells) was saying. What would lead him to believe they were a ‘political message?’

He added in the negative, thus increasing the sensitivity, ‘I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took down the post’.

This is a sensitive statement. As with our blog last week concerning Gary Lineker, we consider whether an apology was given.

In this instance, Comey neither apologises nor admits that he was wrong. Rather, he took down the post because he, ‘opposes violence of any kind.’ Given he now knows that ‘some folks associate those numbers with violence,’ and it’s specific meaning, the expected would be for him to say that he meant nothing against the President and to apologise.

Maybe the formation was 'washed up' on the beach.

Reference

‘Ex-FBI boss interviewed by Secret Service over Trump seashell post’ - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04ezlyq4y0o

All blog subjects are identified, validated and written by the DDL Team. See www.ddlltd.com for more on Deception Detection Lab Ltd.