FBI Director Kash Patel said his bureau has been overwhelmed by ‘copycat’ threats to Donald Trump’s life after James Comey shared a controversial Instagram post calling to ’86 47.’
Patel told Fox News’ Bret Baier that the former FBI Director’s post, which showed seashells on a beach arranged as the numbers, forced him to redirect resources as Trump critics followed suit.
The term ’86’ is often used in hospitality to mean ‘get rid’ of something, but it has also been used in the mafia to mean a grave eight feet long and six feet deep.
‘Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from the former director?’ Patel said.
‘Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists?’
‘Because everywhere across this country people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke… and they can do it because [Comey] did it?’
Patel grew frustrated as he said he has been made to ‘deal with this every single day’, adding that he believes Comey thought it was ‘funny’ to share his seashell post.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request from DailyMail.com for details on the threats to Trump’s life that they have been inundated with.
But it comes after two assassination attempts upended the presidential election last year, with a gunman’s bullet grazing Trump’s ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in July in one of the most stunning security lapses in modern US history.
Comey shared the bizarre post (pictured) earlier this month, which he later insisted was not intended to be a call for Trump’s assassination and he ‘didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence’
The FBI director did not offer details on the threats to Trump’s life, but it comes less than a year after a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in one of the most stunning security lapses in modern US history
FBI Director Kash Patel said his bureau has been overwhelmed by ‘copycat’ threats to Donald Trump’s life after James Comey shared a controversial Instagram post calling to ’86 47′
Patel spoke a day after Comey appeared on CNN to trash Patel’s directorship, where he said ‘the guy has literally nothing in his entire adult life that prepares him for this role.’
Comey added that he ‘feels a little bit sorry’ for Patel, as he compared him to a dog that caught a car and ‘now he has to drive it.’
Patel told Baier that he has ‘no problem’ with Comey criticizing him, and shot back that he has been ‘living rent free in that guy’s head for years.’
It comes as Patel, who was a frequent critic of the FBI before he was tapped to lead it, has rapidly reshaped the bureau in his first months on the job.
After picking MAGA insider and podcaster Dan Bongino as his deputy director, Patel relocated over 1,500 FBI agents from Washington DC to around the country.
Patel noted that the concentration of FBI agents in DC represented almost a third of its entire workforce, which he said led to a loss of focus on bringing crimes down nationwide.
‘A third of the crime doesn’t happen here,’ the FBI director previously told Fox News.
In recent weeks, Patel also announced that he was re-opening several investigations that had previously gone unresolved.
This includes the mysterious discovery of cocaine inside the White House in 2023, which Secret Service investigators said they couldn’t get to the bottom of.
Bongino also revealed this week that he was re-opening investigations into a pipe bomb that was found during the January 6 riots, and the leak of sensitive information from the Supreme Court regarding the overturning of Roe v Wade.
Patel spoke after Comey publicly trashed his directorship, where he said ‘the guy has literally nothing in his entire adult life that prepares him for this role’
Comey hit out at Patel, right, and his deputy director Dan Bongino, left, as he branded them ‘podcasters’ and said they are in over their heads leading the FBI
Patel’s FBI recently announced that it was re-opening several investigations that had previously gone unresolved, including the discovery of cocaine in Biden’s White House in 2023 (pictured)
Comey made his appearance on CNN soon after, when he took the opportunity to slam Patel and Bongino as ‘podcasters.’
‘It’s a little confusing to me honestly, I’m sure it’s a huge adjustment,’ he said.
Speaking of Bongino’s X post announcing the new investigations, he continued: ‘I don’t understand this tweet, I assume the investigation of the pipe bomb that was found on January 6 was never closed. The FBI never closes such a thing.
‘As to the other things, I thought the Supreme Court Marshall had investigated the leak of the draft opinion, I don’t know what the FBI’s role is there.
‘Cocaine at the White House, I thought the Secret Service investigated that. I don’t follow it, and I don’t understand it.’
He added: ‘The FBI often calls for public assistance, this seems much more narrowly targeted – maybe to a former podcast audience.’