Former FBI Director James Comey made headlines in mid-2025 after officials investigated him over an Instagram post of his that they interpreted as calling for U.S. President Donald Trump's assassination.
The post included a depiction of shells on a beach arranged to look like the numbers "8647," which some claimed was a coded message. (86 is slang for "to get rid of" and Trump is the country's 47th president.) Comey later apologized for the post and said he "didn't realize some folks associated those numbers with violence."
Comey is not a stranger to making news and being the subject of rumors. He is best known by the American public for being fired by Trump in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into Russia's possible ties with Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. That incident, too, sparked rumors, including about his purported friendhip with the special counsel appointed to lead that investigation, Robert Mueller.
Here is a collection of rumors we have fact-checked about the former FBI director.
