A newly disclosed exhibit in the federal case against former FBI Director James Comey includes a sharply critical family text accusing Patrice Comey of treating “86 47” as a call for violence, while other evidence cited in the case addresses what the couple understood about the phrase before Comey posted it online.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
A relative of former FBI Director James Comey sent a blistering message to Comey’s wife, Patrice, accusing the couple of becoming consumed by opposition to President Donald Trump and asserting that the phrase “86 47” constituted a call for violence, according to an exhibit cited in the federal criminal case against Comey.
Investigative reporter Paul Sperry publicized the message, which he said appeared among newly disclosed materials connected to the case.
“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. 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,” the relative wrote, according to the X post sharing the exhibit.
The dispute centers on an Instagram photograph Comey posted in May 2025 showing shells arranged to form the numbers “86 47.” Comey captioned the image, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
The post drew immediate controversy because critics interpreted “86” as meaning eliminate or kill and “47” as referring to Trump, the 47th president. Comey has maintained that he did not understand the numbers as a violent message when he posted the photograph.
Sperry previously reported that an FBI search-warrant affidavit contained evidence showing Patrice Comey sent her husband a Google screenshot defining “86” in nonviolent terms approximately two minutes before he posted the photograph.
“BREAKING: An FBI affidavit for a search warrant in the James Comey presidential threat case reveals his wife Patrice Comey sent him a Google screenshot of a nonviolent definition of the term ‘86’ two (2) minutes before Comey posted the alleged threat against President Trump, indicating some forethought his posting could be construed as a threat,” Sperry wrote in a separate X post describing the affidavit.
Earlier this year, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted Comey on two felony counts stemming from the post.
The first count alleges that Comey knowingly and willfully made a threat to take the life of, and inflict bodily harm upon, the president of the United States.
The second alleges that Comey knowingly and willfully transmitted in interstate and foreign commerce a communication containing a threat to kill President Donald J. Trump.
Comey faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Comey’s initial public explanation after the controversy erupted was that he had encountered the shell arrangement during a walk and believed it was merely political.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey previously said on Instagram.
Comey later gave a more detailed account of how he and Patrice came across the shells while walking on the beach together.
“We were walking on the beach, we went to the beach to prepare for this week… and we were walking back towards the road and we saw in the sand someone had arranged shells with numbers. And Patrice, my wife, said, ‘why would someone put an address in the sand?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know’ and we stood over and I said, ‘I think it’s some kind of political message,’” Comey said.
According to Comey, his wife then offered her own understanding of the term “86,” drawing from her experience working in restaurants.
“She said you know, when I was a server – she did a lot of work in restaurants – meant to remove an item from the menu when you ran out of ingredients. And I said, ‘well to me, as a kid it always meant to leave a place, to ditch a place.’ And she said well that very clever you should take a picture of that and I did and posted it on my Instagram and though nothing more of it until I heard through her that people were saying that it was a call for some sort of assassination which is crazy!” Comey said.
The newly publicized family message presents a sharply different interpretation. The relative explicitly rejected the Comeys’ explanation and characterized “86 47” as violent regardless of how they sought to define the phrase afterward.
The federal case now places Comey’s intent at the center of the dispute. Prosecutors allege that the Instagram communication amounted to a criminal threat against Trump, while Comey’s public statements have consistently portrayed the image as something he encountered by chance and posted without realizing others would interpret the numbers as advocating violence.
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