Ellis Wyatt said:
What in the world are you pretending to think the guy meant?
"86" is a term associated w/ the mafia, meaning to kill someone, i. e., take them 8 miles out and bury them 6 feet under. Comey made his name as the USA in the Southern District in New York prosecuting the Gambino crime family (including 'Fat Tony' Salerno). Comey has referred to Trump recently as having mafia-like behavior, and discusses his prosecutorial experience and comparisons of Trump to the mafia in his book (he used the '8647' comment in relation to selling his new book last year).
I read the DoJ is now moving to seize his book proceeds, not sure if true at this point.
Grok from his older 2018 book:
Quote:
The ordinary nature of evil: Comey reflects on meeting mafia figures, including killers, and how unremarkable they seemed in person. A prominent quote: "I wish I could say I felt something different when I was in the presence of a mass murderer, handing me a cup of espresso in an empty convent. In the movies, some foreboding music might play in the background or the light might dim. But there was none of that. Evil has an ordinary face. It laughs, it cries, it deflects, it rationalizes, it makes great pasta. These killers were people who had crossed an indelible line in human experience by intentionally taking another life. None of them saw themselves as bad people."
Mafia culture and leadership insights: He learned about the insular, loyalty-driven world of La Cosa Nostra (including from cooperating witnesses like Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano). This included codes of silence, "made men," loyalty oaths, and an us-versus-them mentality. He portrays mafia bosses as bullies who thrive on fear and control, and notes how this experience shaped his views on ethical leadership versus transactional or fear-based power.
...
Much of the mafia discussion serves as background or analogy in the bookespecially to contrast with later experiences (like his interactions with Donald Trump, which he likens to mob boss dynamics). However, Comey frames his prosecutorial work positively as a grounding experience in pursuing justice against serious criminals.
To claim he saw it as a reference to restaurant slang is absurd. He thought it was a cute way to signal to the 'Comey is my homey' types that he wanted a man dead, because he did. And btw, he started writing fiction in 2023, and his most recent book is a fantasy of his essentially about a right wing podcaster inciting violence:
Quote:
FDR Drive is a legal thriller centered on federal prosecutor Nora Carleton handling a high-stakes case involving a right-wing podcaster accused of inciting violence, free speech issues, and domestic extremism threats in New York.

It's damn clear to me that mafia-talk/codes, inciting violence in a clever way, and his experience in NY and working for/getting fired by Trump were all top of mind when he used this coded threat to promote this book last year. He also laughed about the incident with Jimmy Kimmel (to promote the book) the week he posted the instagram image.