Federal agents tracked down one of the most infamous mob turncoats in American history to ask whether former FBI Director James Comey understood that "86" means "kill", and the answer his own defense team filed with the court may not help him the way they think it does.
A sworn affidavit filed by Comey's defense lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald reveals that on May 8, 2026, an FBI case agent called Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former underboss of the Gambino crime family, to discuss Comey's now-infamous Instagram post. Gravano told the agent that Comey "had to know" what the term "86" meant "as it related to killing someone," Fox News Digital reported.
The filing lands in the middle of Comey's fight to dismiss two federal charges, threatening the life of the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, stemming from a photo he posted on Instagram in May 2025 showing seashells arranged to spell "86 47." Prosecutors say "86" is slang for killing someone and "47" refers to President Trump as the 47th president.
Comey has denied any violent intent. But the FBI's decision to consult the very mob figure Comey once prosecuted, and the answer that came back, exposes just how thin his "I didn't know" defense has become.
Fitzgerald filed the affidavit in support of Comey's motions to dismiss the case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The document captures two separate contacts between the FBI and Gravano: the May 8 phone call and a subsequent recorded interview lasting 25 minutes.
During the recorded sit-down, Gravano elaborated. He said "86" generally means to "get rid of" something, and to him, as a "gangster," it means "to kill." He characterized Comey's seashell post as expressing "let's kill Trump."
Yet Fitzgerald highlighted a distinction: Gravano "did not claim Mr. Comey's seashell post to be a statement threatening that Mr. Comey would personally kill President Trump." The defense appears to be drawing a line between incitement and a direct personal threat, a line prosecutors may not find persuasive.
Gravano also told agents he did not recall ever discussing the term "86" with Comey during the 1990s Gambino prosecution. And the FBI's own search of case materials from the United States v. John Gambino trial turned up no references to the term.
Comey's defense team is using those two facts, no recalled conversation, no documentary evidence, to challenge the prosecution's theory that Comey's years as lead prosecutor on the Gambino case meant he necessarily understood the mob connotation of "86." It is a narrow argument, and it runs headlong into Gravano's blunt assessment that Comey "had to know."
Comey first tried to explain the post during a May 2025 interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. He claimed he found the seashell arrangement rather than creating it, and said he saw it as someone else's political expression, not his own.
Wallace's audience heard Comey say he removed the image because he did not want "any part of any violence." But his description of the post itself was strikingly admiring. Comey told Wallace:
"I actually didn't think of it as political speech by me, but I thought, 'What a clever way to express a political view.' The shells were the same color for each of the letters.... It took a lot of work."
He added that "somebody with artistic flair did that" and that he had "a hard time believing it was anybody with a dark intention." He said there was "certainly no dark intention on my part or my spouse's part."
Those statements create a problem for Comey. He praised the craftsmanship of a display he now insists he did not understand. He admired the effort behind a message he claims carried no menace. A former FBI director, a man who spent decades parsing intent, motive, and coded language for a living, says he simply missed it.
Prosecutors have not been inclined to take that at face value. Federal court filings reported by the Washington Examiner reveal that Comey's wife texted him a definition of "86" two minutes before he posted the image, a detail that directly undercuts his claim of ignorance. Prosecutors also noted that Comey told his publishing agent he would be "OK if it sells books" after the image went viral.
The current charges are not Comey's first brush with a federal grand jury under the Trump-era Justice Department. AP News reported that a prior indictment, on false statements and obstruction charges, was thrown out after a federal judge ruled the interim U.S. Attorney who secured it had been improperly appointed.
The DOJ came back in April 2026 with the threat-related charges now at issue. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who announced the indictment, said flatly that "threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice."
Comey responded with defiance. "I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let's go," the New York Post reported him saying.
Comey has since asked a federal judge to toss the indictment, arguing that the First Amendment shields his post. The Fitzgerald affidavit, with its Gravano interview details, is part of that dismissal effort.
President Trump himself weighed in on the meaning of the post. "A child knows what that meant," Trump said. "If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination."
Prosecutors filed more than 100 pages of court documents asserting that U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle independently decided to seek the indictment without direction from Trump or DOJ leadership. Boyle stated in filings: "No one ordered, directed, or pressured me or my office to continue the investigation." Comey faces arraignment on September 30 with a tentative trial date of October 21.
The Gravano interview puts Comey's defense in an unusual bind. His own lawyer filed the affidavit, presumably to show that even the government's star mob witness stopped short of calling the post a direct personal threat. But the same document contains Gravano's unequivocal statement that Comey "had to know" the violent meaning of the term.
Comey spent years in the 1990s prosecuting Gambino crime family members. Gravano was one of his cooperating witnesses. The prosecution's theory, that a man who worked that closely with organized crime figures understood exactly what "86" meant, does not require a leap of logic. It requires only common sense.
The "86 47" symbol has drawn law enforcement attention beyond the Comey case. Authorities have investigated a threatening "8647" message carved into the National Mall grass near the White House, underscoring that officials treat the phrase as a serious matter regardless of who uses it.
Comey is not the only prominent Democrat facing DOJ scrutiny in the current political environment. California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the DOJ is investigating him and his wife, framing the probe as political retaliation, a defense that echoes Comey's own posture. Whether courts buy that framing in either case remains to be seen.
The original prosecutor in the Comey case stepped down and was replaced by an Assistant U.S. Attorney, though the circumstances of that change remain unclear from public filings. Fox News Digital contacted both the FBI and a legal representative for Comey for further comment; no responses were reported.
Meanwhile, the DOJ's broader posture toward politically charged investigations continues to shape the landscape in Washington, with both parties watching how aggressively the department moves against high-profile targets.
Comey built a career reading criminal intent for a living. Now a jury may get to decide whether he could read two numbers on a beach.