Trump rejects ex-FBI director Comey's explanation of "8647" post

U.S. President Donald Trump accused former FBI Director James Comey on Friday of calling for his assassination in a coded social media post.

U.S. law enforcement officials are investigating an Instagram photo posted by Comey of the numbers 8647 formed by seashells on the beach. Some Trump supporters interpreted the numbers as a threat against the Republican president.

"Cool shell formation," Former FBI Director James Comey commented on his post on Instagram before deleting it.Courtesy: BBC

"He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear," Trump said in an interview with Fox News before leaving Abu Dhabi after a four-day Middle East trip.

In U.S. slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, and 47 may refer to Trump, the 47th president. Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as one to violently remove Trump from office, including by assassination.

Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, took down the post after an uproar by Trump supporters, saying he was unaware the apparent political message could have been associated with violence.

"He was hit so hard because people like me and they like what's happening with our country," Trump said in the interview excerpt. "And he's calling for the assassination of the president."

He said he would leave further action on the matter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and others.

U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran "is leading the investigation into this threat," Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, told Fox News on Thursday night.

"Cool shell formation on my beach walk," Comey said in the post.

Later, he said he did not realize some people associated those numbers with violence. "It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down."

Gabbard dismissed the explanation as absurd and said the "8647" slogan has been used by anti-Trump protesters and was a veiled call to action against the sitting president.