CNN
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James Comey’s controversial, now-deleted Instagram picture of seashells spelling out the numbers “86 47” solely provides to a protracted record of social media posts from the previous FBI director which have sparked a mixture of each anger and — extra usually — a heavy dose of eye rolls.
Comey’s social media technique has remodeled from nameless accounts he secretly saved on Twitter and Instagram in 2017 to a self-promoting strategy the place he’s posted newsworthy statements, cringe-worthy “dad” jokes, and novice panorama pictures not in contrast to the seashells on a seashore that now have him in scorching water with Trump and his allies.
Comey, the 6-foot-8 former Republican who has been a supply of fury at instances for each events over the previous decade, has additionally used his social media accounts to spice up President Donald Trump’s Democratic opponents within the 2020 and 2024 elections, to push again in opposition to assaults from Trump and Republican critics, and as an outlet to offer commentary on information occasions, like particular counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Trump marketing campaign and Russia.
“So many questions,” Comey posted in March 2019, along with a photo of himself trying up at tall timber in a forest, after then-Legal professional Normal William Barr launched a cherry-picked summary of the Mueller report.
Now Comey is below investigation by the Trump administration for the submit of seashells on a seashore that spelled out the numbers “86 47.” The quantity 86 can usually confer with eliminating or tossing one thing out, whereas 47 corresponds to Trump’s present time period in workplace because the forty seventh president.
The submit was met with swift outrage from Trump’s allies and members of his Cupboard. Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard instructed Thursday that Comey could possibly be jailed, whereas Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a social media post that DHS and the Secret Service have been investigating an alleged risk made in opposition to Trump by Comey. Authorized and safety specialists say prosecuting Comey for such a submit would likely be fruitless.
Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service in Washington Friday night, in response to regulation enforcement sources.
Trump accused Comey of insinuating a risk in opposition to him. “He knew precisely what that meant. A toddler is aware of what that meant. In case you’re the FBI director and also you don’t know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Trump stated in a clip of an interview with Fox Information launched Friday.
In explaining why he eliminated the submit, Comey wrote on Instagram that he had “posted earlier an image of some shells I noticed at the moment on a seashore stroll, which I assumed have been a political message.”
“I didn’t understand some people affiliate these numbers with violence. It by no means occurred to me however I oppose violence of any type so I took the submit down,” he continued.
A number of individuals from totally different ends of the ideological spectrum noticed that whereas Comey had a proper to submit the picture, it was the most recent proof that the previous FBI director “has gotten a bit ‘bizarre’ in his retirement,” as Jeffrey Blehar put it in the National Review.
“It is a man who, if his Instagram is correct proof, spends his days strolling awestruck by an enchanted world,” Blehar wrote. “Nature clearly speaks to this man, which is why it’s so disappointing that, when it does, it’s all the time within the voice of prolix political slogans.”
When reached for remark, Comey directed CNN to his Instagram submit explaining the sooner image’s removing.
Till 2017, Comey operated within the shadows of Twitter, which is now X, and Instagram. His Twitter account was hiding in plain sight with the title Reinhold Niebuhr, after a Protestant pastor within the mid-Twentieth century who was the topic of Comey’s faculty thesis.
However his accounts were discovered in March 2017 by Gizmodo’s Ashley Feinberg after he let slip at a dinner that he had secret social media accounts.
Comey responded with a tweet that set the tone for his future social media posts, posting each a hyperlink to the FBI jobs web site and a meme of Will Ferrell in “Anchorman” with the caption: “ACTUALLY I’M NOT EVEN MAD. THAT’S AMAZING.”
Comey’s account then went dormant for almost seven months, together with by the interval the place he was fired by Trump and when he testified in a blockbuster Senate listening to the next month.
“Watching migrating white pelicans in Iowa desirous about Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer,” he wrote two days later together with a photograph of pelicans flying by the sky.
Comey started posting once more in October 2017. He began with pictures of surroundings, together with a kayaker on the Hudson River at West Level army academy and a cornfield in Iowa. “Good to be again in Iowa,” he wrote in a tweet in October 2017.
Comey confirmed that it was in fact his account the following day. “Goodbye Iowa. On the street house. Gotta get again to writing. Will attempt to tweet in helpful methods,” he tweeted, together with an image of himself standing in the midst of a two-lane street, trying into the space together with his arms folded.
The next month, Comey changed his Twitter account title to “@Comey.”
“Glad to be a part of the Twitterverse. Grateful to Reinhold for the duvet these previous few years,” he wrote.
As he ready to release a memoir in 2018 with a blistering criticism of Trump’s presidency and their interactions, he used social media to needle the president: “Lordy, this time there might be a tape. Audio e-book nearly completed,” Comey tweeted with a photograph of himself in a recording studio — referencing the swirling speculation in 2017, fueled by Trump, suggesting he had secretly recorded their conversations.
Comey continued to submit continuously, together with quotes about dishonesty from his former nom de plume Reinhold Niebuhr and bad jokes about gnomes.
He additionally defended himself in opposition to Republican criticisms in 2019 stemming from an inspector common report that discovered Comey broke FBI policy together with his memos about assembly with Trump.
On April 1, 2019, Comey posted one other picture of himself trying into the space on a two-lane street. “I’m in. We’d like somebody within the center. #2020,” he wrote, with an addendum: “However may you think about a president who used social media to make dad jokes slightly than to hurl insults? Completely happy #AprilFools.”
Comey’s lively social media persona had its detractors. Vainness Truthful particular correspondent Molly Jong-Quick wrote in the Bulwark in 2019 that Comey was” probably the most annoying good man in America” and shouldn’t be on Twitter.
“Twitter Comey is tedious and pretentious and fully, completely, completely humorless,” she wrote. “Comey Twitter went from adorkable to insufferable awfully quick.”
Comey – who many Democrats blame for costing Hillary Clinton the 2016 election by saying in October 2016 he was re-opening an FBI investigation into her personal e mail server – used his social media accounts to bolster Joe Biden and Kamala Harris within the 2020 marketing campaign.
“Vote in your nation,” he posted whereas carrying a Biden-Harris 2020 shirt and ingesting from a Biden-Harris espresso mug.
And within the leadup to the 2024 election, Comey posted a number of messages supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, together with a photograph of her look with Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney and of himself carrying a Harris-Walz camo hat.
“Each American ought to vote nation over social gathering in 2024,” he wrote in October 2024.
On the day a Manhattan jury discovered Trump responsible of 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information final Might, Comey reposted a tweet he despatched in December 2017 of a Bible passage and river rapids: “‘However justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ Amos 5:24.”
After Trump gained reelection, Comey posted several messages to these nonetheless working in regulation enforcement. In February, Comey urged his former colleagues to “struggle for the rule of regulation – to guard your nation and to maintain your jobs.”
For the reason that 2020 election, nevertheless, a lot of Comey’s social media was dedicated to the books he’s written because the 2018 memoir, which embody a number of crime novels and an examination of the felony justice system throughout Trump’s presidency.
The day earlier than he posted his “86 47” seashell picture, Comey shared one other shot from the seashore: Of himself sitting in a lounge chair studying his new novel that’s set to be launched later subsequent week. “Prepping for launch of an awesome seashore learn (subsequent Tuesday!),” he wrote.
