How "Get Smart" puts the lie to the Comey prosecution
The Trump DOJ has indicted former FBI director Jame Comey with "threatening the president" due to a social media post he made showing a photo of seashells on the seashore he spotted, arranged as the numeric 8647. They claim the 86 means "kill" and the "47" means President Trump (47th president).
Leaving aside the obvious First Amendment issues, the DOJ interpretation of "86" is laughable. That numeric phrase apparently first came to public usage in the early 20th century with meanings such as "reject", "item sold out", "unwanted" and other various negative connotations far short of any kind of actual threat.
In fact, when I first started hearing the phrase 8647, I immediately thought of the old 60s TV series "Get Smart" -- featuring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart - Agent 86. Creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry chose 86 to indicate that Smart was a kind of reject. Sidenote: Was there also an Agent 47 in the show? YES, though not a main character. It never occurred to me anyone would use that phrase as a threat!
Point is, even if we assume that Comey associated the 47 with Trump, there is no reason to assume he associated 86 with a threat of any kind.
That the Trump DOJ is stooping so low is disgraceful but not at all surprising.
L
Lauren Weinstein
npub1lq…knf7e
2026-04-30 21:08:04 CEST
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2026-04-30 21:08:04 CESTEvent JSON
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"content": "How \"Get Smart\" puts the lie to the Comey prosecution\n\nThe Trump DOJ has indicted former FBI director Jame Comey with \"threatening the president\" due to a social media post he made showing a photo of seashells on the seashore he spotted, arranged as the numeric 8647. They claim the 86 means \"kill\" and the \"47\" means President Trump (47th president).\n\nLeaving aside the obvious First Amendment issues, the DOJ interpretation of \"86\" is laughable. That numeric phrase apparently first came to public usage in the early 20th century with meanings such as \"reject\", \"item sold out\", \"unwanted\" and other various negative connotations far short of any kind of actual threat.\n\nIn fact, when I first started hearing the phrase 8647, I immediately thought of the old 60s TV series \"Get Smart\" -- featuring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart - Agent 86. Creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry chose 86 to indicate that Smart was a kind of reject. Sidenote: Was there also an Agent 47 in the show? YES, though not a main character. It never occurred to me anyone would use that phrase as a threat!\n\nPoint is, even if we assume that Comey associated the 47 with Trump, there is no reason to assume he associated 86 with a threat of any kind.\n\nThat the Trump DOJ is stooping so low is disgraceful but not at all surprising.\n\nL",
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