Prosecutors sought input from Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, a convicted gangster, to build their case against former FBI Director James Comey, according to a court filing by Comey's defense lawyers. The filing alleges that less than a month after Comey's indictment earlier this year, prosecutors interviewed Gravano to ascertain if Comey's experience prosecuting the Gambino crime family in the 1990s would have led him to interpret the term "86" as a reference to murder or violence.
Comey was indicted in April on two charges for allegedly posting a picture on his Instagram account of seashells spelling out "8647," which federal prosecutors contend constituted a threat against the president's life. Gravano, who previously confessed to involvement in 19 murders and cooperated with prosecutors, reportedly told the prosecutor and FBI agent that he did not interpret Comey's "8647" seashells post as a personal threat to President Donald Trump. According to the defense filing, Gravano stated that while law enforcement agents would be familiar with the term's alternative organized crime meaning referring to murder, "a gangster would never use that term" because they knew law enforcement understood its implication.
Comey's lawyers included these claims in court filings as part of an effort to dismiss evidence seized from Apple and Google via search warrants. The defense argues that agents knowingly omitted details in their search warrant applications that would have undermined their case theory regarding the meaning of Comey's "8647" post. The defense contends that the government misled issuing magistrates about fundamental facts of the case, thereby violating Comey's Fourth Amendment rights against arbitrary government invasions.
Defense attorneys claim that federal agents spent months reviewing Comey's government service records and interviewing individuals who worked on organized crime cases decades ago. They reportedly searched case records, an FBI database, trial transcripts, the FBI's Gambino case file, and AI search engines without success before turning to Gravano. However, neither Gravano nor two retired FBI agents with extensive organized crime experience recalled the term "86" being used to reference murder, according to the defense filing. This alleged lack of evidence, the defense argues, undermines a central element of the case: that Comey would have understood "86" to connote violence due to his law enforcement background.
In addition to the alleged conversations with Gravano, the defense filing claims prosecutors omitted details about the lack of evidence linking "86" to violence. It also raises concerns about the reliability of a key witness who allegedly expressed a desire for Comey to "go to jail." This witness reportedly contacted Comey's wife shortly after the Instagram post, raising concerns that it could be a "call for violence." Agents reportedly cited this witness's account in a search warrant affidavit, claiming the individual "immediately perceived the term '86' 47' as a call to get rid of, in a violent way, or even to assassinate President Trump." The defense alleges that prosecutors failed to disclose critical information about this witness's credibility, including their estrangement from Comey, their assessment of Comey's mental state as "speculation" and "conjecture," and their own history of entering rehabilitation.
Further, the defense asserts that this witness initially interpreted "86" through its "food service meaning" but later associated the term with violence after listening to a podcast by Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani reportedly claimed that Comey had worked on organized crime cases where the term "86" was used by mafia members to mean "kill." The defense filing also points to public statements by Trump and his allies, arguing that Comey's prosecution is vindictive and a result of the president's "genuine animus" towards Comey.
Comey's lawyers also cite other public figures' allegedly violent statements about government officials, suggesting that the Department of Justice is not applying the law uniformly. They note that Amazon lists hundreds of thousands of items displaying the numbers "8645," "8646," or "8647," none of which have led to similar prosecutions. The defense asserts that following Comey's Instagram post, the FBI "instituted a new policy, effective immediately, to treat the phrase '8647' as coded language for threatening the President." The filing argues that Comey's prosecution appears to be the first indictment solely for publishing "86" in connection with a public official.
In a separate motion, Comey's lawyers sought to obtain transcripts and recordings of grand jury proceedings, asserting that the government may have misrepresented key factual and legal issues to the grand jury. The Department of Justice has defended its prosecution of Comey, stating they are treating the case like any other threat to a public official and that the grand jury found probable cause to indict. The White House has denied that Trump is using the Justice Department to target political adversaries.