Former FBI Director James Comey appeared in court: his Instagram photo, where he laid out the numbers “86 47” with seashells, was called a threat to kill President Donald Trump.
CBS writes about this.
Comey voluntarily surrendered to law enforcement and appeared in court in Virginia. Judge William E. Fitzpatrick rejected the Justice Department's attempts to set conditions for his release.
“I don't believe any release conditions are necessary in this case,” Fitzpatrick said.
Comey was charged with two counts: intentionally making a threat to kill or injure the president, and intentionally distributing a message threatening to kill the president.
The charges stem from an image he posted on Instagram last May of shells arranged in the sand in the form of the numbers “86 47.” The indictment says that “a reasonable recipient, aware of the circumstances,” would have viewed the image “as a serious attempt to harm President Trump.”
In slang, the number “86” means “to get rid of something.” Donald Trump, in turn, is the 47th president of the United States. Almost immediately after this post, Trump supporters criticized James Comey. Comey quickly deleted the post and said that he “didn't realize that some people associate these numbers with violence.”
“It didn't even occur to me, but I am against any violence, so I deleted the post,” the former FBI chief noted.
In 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled that in order to consider speech a “real threat,” the government must prove that the speaker “knowingly ignored a substantial risk that his words would cause harm to another person.”