Prosecutors Recruited a Mob Hitman to Help Build Their Case Against James Comey

Attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey filed a motion this week alleging that federal prosecutors withheld and distorted key details in the case accusing him of threatening President Trump through an Instagram post of seashells arranged to spell “86 47.” According to the defense filing reported Wednesday, prosecutors sought input from Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a former Gambino crime family underboss turned government informant, to assess whether Comey’s past experience prosecuting the Gambino family would have led him to understand “86” as a reference to killing someone [1, 2]. Gravano reportedly told investigators he did not recall ever discussing the term “86” with Comey or hearing it used in connection with the Gambino trial [1]. The defense also says an FBI database search for any link between Comey and the term “86” came back inconclusive, and that an agent’s review of the Gambino case file found no references to it [2]. Comey faces one count of threatening the president and one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, charges that carry up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted [1].

Why It Sucks:

Conservatives and Trump Supporters

• A former FBI director should be held to a higher standard. Supporters of the prosecution argue Comey’s Gambino-era experience makes his claimed ignorance of “86” as underworld slang for killing implausible, and prosecutors are entitled to explore that expertise [1].
• The post itself invited scrutiny. Backers of the case say a former top law enforcement official publicly posting a numeric code tied to the sitting president warranted a serious criminal investigation, not dismissal as an innocent beach photo [1, 2].
• Defense spin doesn’t erase the substance of the charges. Prosecution supporters argue that procedural complaints about witness sourcing are a distraction from the underlying question of whether the post constituted a genuine threat [2].

Comey Supporters and Civil Liberties Advocates

• A mafia informant is now a credibility witness for the DOJ. Critics argue that leaning on Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a self-admitted killer of 19 people, to interpret Comey’s state of mind reveals how thin the government’s actual case is [1, 2].
• Investigators reportedly buried their own dead ends. The defense’s claim that an FBI database search and a case-file review both failed to link Comey to “86” as a violent term, details allegedly omitted from the government’s presentation, suggests prosecutors built the case around a theory their own evidence didn’t support [2].
• This looks like a targeted prosecution, not neutral law enforcement. Comey allies argue the entire “86 47” theory, chased down to the point of consulting an infamous mob hitman, reflects a Justice Department more interested in punishing a Trump critic than pursuing a genuine threat [1].

Legal and DOJ Institutionalists

• Relying on a witness who wants the defendant jailed taints the process. Defense filings allege the unnamed informant told investigators he hopes Comey “goes to jail” for “crimes that he committed” as FBI director, the kind of bias that career prosecutors are trained to flag, not build a case around [2].
• Omitting inconclusive findings breaches basic disclosure norms. If an FBI database search and case-file review truly came back empty and weren’t disclosed, that raises due-process concerns regardless of who the defendant is or which administration is in charge [1, 2].
• High-profile cases built on colorful witnesses erode public trust in prosecutions generally. Institutionalists worry that turning to a notorious organized-crime figure for expert-style testimony, win or lose, cheapens the credibility of the Justice Department’s charging decisions [1].

Sources & Citations:

[1] ABC News: DOJ sought input on Comey case from notorious gangster Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano, defense says
[2] Al Jazeera: James Comey’s lawyers say US government distorted details in seashell case