A federal grand jury in April 2026 charged James Comey with creating a danger towards President Donald Trump and transmitting against the law throughout state traces.
The costs got here after Comey, the previous FBI director, posted a picture of seashells on a North Carolina seashore, organized within the type of the numerals “86” and “47.” 40-seven used to be an ostensible connection with Trump, the forty seventh U.S. president, and 86 to a colloquial expression conveying a way of “getting rid of” or “casting aside.”
However is “86 47” actually a danger? And if this is the case, is it a prison one amounting to a danger to assassinate the president, as prosecutors have recommended?
Against this to crimes reminiscent of homicide or arson, which may also be dedicated with out uttering – or writing – a unmarried phrase, threats are inherently crimes of language. They don’t exist with out the linguistic symbols used to put across them.
Linguists like me who paintings within the box of language and the legislation perceive a majority of these crimes to be “speech acts,” utterances that carry out the motion they title. What’s a promise if no longer the phrases “I promise” or an apology if no longer the phrases “I’m sorry”?
The legislation is stuffed with speech acts. Rulings, verdicts and arrests are all speech acts. So, too, are the crimes of language: solicitation, perjury, bribery and threats.
What’s a danger?
Threats are language that states or implies the intent to intimidate or create hurt. As a speech act, they needn’t be direct however regularly are.
In December 1984, the White Area mail room won a letter with the message, “Ronnie, Listen Chump! Resign or You’ll Get Your Brains Blown Out,” regarding President Ronald Reagan. Beneath those phrases used to be a drawing of a pistol with a bullet being ejected from the barrel.
The Secret Provider carried out a handwriting comparability research of the phrases, which resulted in the arrest of David Hoffman. He mentioned that “he didn’t know it was against the law to threaten the President.”
However Hoffman did devote a language crime. Even supposing he didn’t use the phrases “I threaten to blow your brains out if you don’t resign,” the passive development “you’ll get your brains blown out” accompanied via a drawing of a pistol constituted a right away danger that expressed a transparent intent to intimidate and hurt the president.
The clinical means of dictionaries
This brings us to the Comey case. Can a photograph of 38 seashells organized within the numerals “86” and “47,” and broadcast over Instagram, represent a danger towards Trump?
In principle, “86 47” may well be an oblique danger, however the interpretation of Comey’s message actually hinges at the that means of “86” when used as a verb.
Performing Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche speaks on April 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C., as fees are introduced towards former FBI Director James Comey.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Photographs
That is the place equipment of forensic linguistics, which is helping remedy crime and unravel issues of language and the legislation, can lend a hand.
The primary instrument is lexicography, the educational learn about of making dictionaries. A vintage maxim of lexicography is that dictionaries are old-fashioned sooner than they’re published. It’s a nod to the truth that phrases’ meanings trade and new phrases input the language briefly.
Even supposing dictionaries are imperfect, their definitions are the results of the rigorous learn about of phrase that means and adherence to the clinical means of lexicography, the apply of writing and modifying dictionaries and different reference fabrics.
Within the Comey case, we’d anticipate finding “86” indexed as a noun. However the inclusion of the nonstandard verb shape – “to 86” – would let us know that what might appear mysterious and cryptic if truth be told has a conventionalized and well-recognized that means.
Of the 5 primary dictionaries of recent English I consulted, all had entries for “86” as a verb. The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, contains: “to eject or debar (a person) from premises; to reject or abandon; (in earliest use) to refuse to serve (a customer).”
Oxford additionally gives this 2nd access: “In restaurants and bars, an expression indicating that the supply of an item is exhausted.” This may occasionally provide an explanation for why many eating place staff around the nation have sturdy reactions to the Comey indictment.
The American Heritage Dictionary definition contains “to refuse to serve (an unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant; to throw out, eject; to throw away, discard.” Merriam-Webster supplies a identical definition: “to refuse to serve (a customer); to eject or ban (a customer); broadly, to eject, dismiss or remove (someone).”
Collins Dictionary gives two entries, the primary consistent with the others – “ to reject from, or to refuse to serve at” – and the second one: “to cut off, eject, cancel, eliminate, kill, etc.”
The dictionary proof is due to this fact blended: Maximum definitions put across a way of “kicking out” or “refusing service,” however Collins does come with “kill” as a secondary definition.
How atypical audio system of English use ‘86’
Extra proof is wanted, so I grew to become to the second one instrument: linguistic corpora. A corpus – plural: corpora – is a selection of texts selected to constitute language as it’s if truth be told produced via audio system and writers throughout genres and time classes. Linguistic corpora are helpful as a result of they display us utilization in context, whilst offering sufficient knowledge to behavior quantitative research of phrase that means.
With over 1 billion phrases, the Corpus of Recent American English is the biggest corpus of spoken and written American English to be had these days. I analyzed utilization of the phrase “86” within the corpus and located 372 attestations in complete shape – “eighty-six,” no longer “86.”
Comey posted a picture of seashells on a seashore organized within the type of the numerals ‘86’ and ‘47.’
James Comey/Instagram
The majority of the attestations had not anything to do with “ejecting.” However in a random pattern of 100 instances of “eighty-six,” 20% had been the verb shape conveying the sense of “discard” or “eject.” Of the ones, two attestations intended “to kill,” and each got here from fictional tv and movie. Way more commonplace had been expressions reminiscent of “Definitely 86 the coat, it sends the wrong message” and “Can we 86 the flags, please?”
When the direct object of the verb used to be a human matter, “86” nonetheless overwhelmingly intended “to discard” or “eject,” together with this situation when the topic used to be every other sitting U.S. president: “Obama’s going to lose this election … they will blame his one term on a homophobic electorate who chose to eighty-six him because of his SSM stance,” in connection with his reinforce for homosexual marriage.
Within the Obama case, “86” obviously intended “vote him out.”
Consumer-generated dictionaries are a 3rd instrument linguists use to research phrase that means within the context of language crimes. They’re much less dependable than dictionaries written via skilled lexicographers, however – like corpora – they offer us a way of the heart beat of the language because it’s taking place now.
Even supposing they regularly comprise factual mistakes, they let us know what English audio system assume they know concerning the origins and meanings of phrases – a great tool for examining language crimes.
I studied the entries equipped via customers for “86” on City Dictionary, the place the highest-ranked definition is “to remove, end usage, or take away.” Of the 63 entries, most effective seven point out killing, a type of in connection with the Comey seashells. The majority of different entries align with the dictionary proof: 86 way to do away with one thing, or to have run out of a key component.
The Comey indictment states that “a reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” Comey’s put up “as a serious expression of an intent to do harm to President Trump.”
Taking a look throughout dictionaries, linguistic corpora and user-generated dictionaries, “eighty-six” may imply to kill however almost certainly doesn’t. A basic speaker of recent American English would interpret Comey’s put up as an expression of opinion, a need to “eject” the president from place of work.
