Sen. Mike Lee wants to investigate former FBI director over social media post
Jun 13, 2025, 6:26 PM
Former FBI Director James Comey gestures speaks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Feb. 24, 2020. Utah Sen. Mike Lee introduced a resolution condemning Comey for a post Lee said called for the assassination of the president. (Charles Krupa, Associated Press)
(Charles Krupa, Associated Press)
WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. Mike Lee introduced a resolution calling for an investigation into a former FBI director and Trump critic for a social media post Lee said called for the assassination of the president.
James Comey, who was fired as FBI director by President Donald Trump in 2017, posted a photo on Instagram in May showing seashells arranged to form the number 8647, along with the comment: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
The number 86 can be used as slang for ejecting or removing someone, such as throwing somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. And Trump is the 47th president of the United States. The origins of the term “86” are unclear, though it can also be used in military slang to refer to killing something.
Trump and many allies, Lee included, said at the time that the message was a call for Trump to be violently removed from office.
“A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox News. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”
🧵 Former FBI Director Jim Comey posted a cryptic message that—as far as I can tell—can be read only to mean “kill Trump”
I’m speechless
Literally speechless
1/ https://t.co/fwGDuwsj46 pic.twitter.com/zbaF2ghqKp— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 15, 2025
“Former FBI Director Jim Comey posted a cryptic message that — as far as I can tell — can be read only to mean ‘kill Trump,'” Lee posted on X at the time. “I’m speechless. Literally speechless.”
Just the former director of the FBI calling for the assassination of our President.
Every single Democrat should denounce this but sadly their media allies won’t even ask them about it. pic.twitter.com/VeqyFqXaBA
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) May 15, 2025
Comey removed the photo from his Instagram and said in a follow-up post that he “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.”
The U.S. Secret Service has since launched an investigation into Comey as a result of the post.
Lee introduced a resolution in the Senate this week, which would condemn Comey for “inciting violence against President Donald J. Trump,” bar Comey from future employment with the federal government and call for investigations into the former FBI director by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security.
“For the former FBI director to be amplifying threats against the president of the United States is disgraceful,” Lee said. “President Trump has been targeted in two assassination attempts and wounded in one, which killed Corey Comperatore. Congress should unite to condemn Jim Comey in the strongest terms.”
Both attempts occurred last summer during the presidential campaign. Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, and was the target of another attempt at his West Palm Beach golf club in September.
Lee’s resolution says that “Congress must hold Mr. Comey accountable for his violations of the public trust and preserve the rule of law to protect our institutions from those that seek to sow discord and promote violence against their political opponents.”
The resolution is cosponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and a companion resolution was introduced in the House by Reps. August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Laurel Lee, R-Florida.
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