Who is James Comey? Former FBI chief lands in trouble for '8647' post

A social media post showing the number "8647" formed by seashells on the beach, has landed former FBI Director James Comey in trouble. Some supporters of US President Donald Trump have interpreted the image as a threat.

In US parlance the number 86 can be used as verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly, and 47 is code for Trump, the 47th president. Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as one to violently remove Trump from office, including by assassination.

Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, later took down the post, saying he was unaware the apparent political message could have been associated with violence.

As US law enforcement officials are looking into the social media post by former FBI Director, let us know more about James Comey and his early works:

An American lawyer and former director of FBI, Comey was terminated in May 2017.

Early in his first term, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion with Russia to help Trump get elected.

For most of his adult life, Comey was a registered Republican, however in 2016 he said he is "not registered any longer".

After graduating from the College of William and Mary and the University of Chicago Law School, Comey served as an assistant United States attorney.

He became deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2003. In 2005, after leaving DOJ, he served as general counsel and senior vice president at defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

In 2013, Comey was appointed as a Director of HSBC Holdings.

In 2013, Barack Obama appointed Comey as the Director of FBI and was responsible in overseeing the investigation into Hilary Clinton email controversy where she was said to have used a private email server for official public communications.

In 2017, Trump fired Comey, saying he did it "to do he right thing for the American people."

According to NBC News, Trump wanted "FBI's investigation into Russia election meddling to be done properly."

Regarding the latest post by Comey which he deleted, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said on X that DHS and Secret Service were "investigating this threat and will respond appropriately."

Others were more explicit in assigning a malign meaning to Comey's post, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino saying it was a call to assassinate Trump.

Comey posted an Instagram photo of the number 8647 formed by seashells on the beach.

"Cool shell formation on my beach walk," Comey said.

But after the uproar from Trump supporters, Comey took the post down, saying he had assumed it was merely a "political message."

"I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down," Comey said.

(With Reuters inputs)