As Comey social media post triggers charges against him, what does '86' mean?
Prosecutors in the Trump administration are accusing former FBI director James Comey of calling for violence against President Donald Trump by posting a photo online of sea shells assembled to draw out the numbers 8-6-4-7 on a beach.
Trump is the 47th American president, and the phrase "to 86" is a commonly-used restaurant industry term in American-English, meaning "to remove or eject". It is thought to have existed since the 1930s.
More recently, the term has taken on another lesser-known meaning - "to kill", according to Merriam-Webster, the oldest publisher of dictionaries in the US.
Comey deleted his post, and says he was unaware of the violent interpretation. Trump has disputed that, alleging that Comey was calling for his assassination "loud and clear".
This marks the second time the justice department has brought criminal charges against Comey, a longtime critic of Trump. In November, a judge dismissed charges that he lied to Congress during testimony and obstructed a congressional proceeding.
In May 2025, investigators said they were investigating Comey's post. Then in April - nearly one year later - they announced that he would be charged with threatening Trump's life.
The charges came days after an alleged assassination attempt against Trump, carried out at an event at a Washington hotel. There is no evidence of any link to Comey.
Comey voluntarily surrendered to officers in Virginia, and was quickly released pending trial.
His lawyers say they will seek to have the case dismissed on grounds of selective and vindictive prosecution - arguing he was targeted for criticising Trump.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges at a news conference, saying that Comey "disgracefully encouraged a threat on President Trump's life and posted it on Instagram for the world to see."
Comey faces charges of making a threat against the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The criminal charges were filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the same region where the shells were reportedly found.
What does '86' mean?
The term's etymology is not certain, according to Merriam-Webster, but it is widely believed to have originated from soda counter servers in the early 20th Century who would say it to mean that an item had sold out.
The most common theory is that the term is rhythming slang for "nix" - meaning "to refuse or reject" - although countless other ideas have been proposed.
The term later came to be used as a verb. For example, restaurant workers might tell each other to remove something from the menu by "86ing" it.
By the 1950s, it was being used to refer to customers too. Unruly or drunk customers might be thrown out or refused more drinks if they've been "86'ed" by staff.
In military or law enforcement jargon, it has also come to mean to eliminate or kill, according to a blog entry by Merriam-Webster.
However, the dictionary does not include that meaning in its entry for 86, explaining that this omission is "due to its relative recency and sparseness of use".
There are countless other suggestions of how the "86" phrase originated - some of which hint at violence. One legend suggests the phrase began at a Prohibition-era bar in New York where unruly patrons were evicted through the door at 86 Barrow Street.
But as St Louis magazine pointed out in 2019, there are at least 86 theories for where the term came from.
Getty ImagesWhat will happen to Comey?
The charges come months after the US Secret Service and the FBI said they are investigating the post by Comey, who Trump famously fired in 2017.
They also follow the Trump administration's crackdown on TV host Jimmy Kimmel. Trump called for Kimmel to be fired the day before, for a joke which Trump supporters say was meant to encourage violence against the president.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the highest-ranking spymaster in the US, called for Comey to be jailed for "issuing a hit" on Trump.
Supporters of the former FBI director say his post is probably protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution - which ensures freedom of speech.
For that reason, Comey's post "neither constitutes a true threat nor merits federal investigation", according to a statement by campaign group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
It has also been pointed out by Democrats that 8646 was also frequently used by critics of former Joe Biden, who was the 46th president.
On Amazon, items can be found for sale with imagery displaying both the numbers 8646 and 8647. Also for sale are 8645 items - which could refer to Trump's first term in the White House, when he was the 45th American president.
