The White House has confirmed that the U.S. Secret Service is actively investigating former FBI Director James Comey over allegations he incited violence — including possible assassination — against the sitting President of the United States.

Comey posted a cryptic message to his Instagram account on Thursday spelled out in seashells: “86 47.”

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey said in his caption. “86” means “to kill, to murder; to execute judicially.” Hours later, the post was deleted from the Instagram platform without explanation.

The White House responded to Comey’s post after it went viral across social media on Thursday, describing it as “what can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States.”

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously.”

The FBI has also aware of Comey’s Instagram post.

James Comey was fired as FBI Director by President Trump in 2017, while he was actively overseeing an investigation into the president during his first term.

In the aftermath of his dismissal, it emerged that Comey had documented nine private conversations with Trump in a series of confidential memos.

He later admitted in sworn Congressional testimony that he gave portions of those memos to a friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, with the explicit intention of leaking them to The New York Times. His goal? To trigger the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the president for obstruction of justice.

Within 24 hours of the leak, Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel on May 17, 2017.

Comey handed over his memos to Mueller and served as a key witness in the special counsel’s investigation — even as he publicly declared that Donald Trump was “morally unfit to be president” and claimed there was “certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice.”

All the while, Comey was not just a witness — but the architect of the investigation itself.