April 30, 2026 08:44 AM UTC

If "8647" Is A Crime, Why Isn't Joe Oltmann In Jail?

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As The Hill’s Ashleigh Fields reports, yesterday President Donald Trump tried to defend the indictment handed down this week against his longtime foe former FBI Director James Comey, attempting to characterize a photo posted by Comey of seashells spelling out “8647” as an actionable threat with intent to harm Trump:

Comey has said he is innocent of the charges and that he did not realize the image could have been interpreted as advocating violence against Trump. He took down the post when told of that implication.

But Trump has pressed for the Department of Justice to prosecute Comey, and he argued Wednesday that the ex-FBI leader knew what he was doing.

“‘86’ is a mob term for ‘kill him.’ They say 86 him! 86 47 means ‘kill President Trump,’” the president wrote in a Wednesday post on Truth Social…

Earlier in the day, as Steve Benen writes for MSNOW, Trump said the same thing–“8647” can only mean that Comey was making a threat with the intent to put Trump’s life in danger:

At an Oval Office event with the Artemis II astronauts, a reporter asked about the Comey charges. “Well, if anybody knows anything about crime, they know ‘86,’” the Republican replied. “It’s a mob term for ‘kill him.’ You know, you ever see the movies? … That’s a mob term for ‘killing.’”

…At the same White House event, Trump was also asked whether he “really” believed that Comey’s seashells put his life in danger. “Probably,” the president replied.

For the record, he said this with a straight face.

As of this writing, we haven’t seen a single credible source articulate a way that this case makes sense under federal law and the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that statements must meet specific criteria to be considered prosecutable threats, and this doesn’t come even remotely close.

If it does, the whole concept of free speech in America is about to take a frightening authoritarian turn:

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday that “despite being one of Comey’s longest critics, the indictment raises troubling free speech issues. In the end, it must be the Constitution, not Comey, that drives the analysis and this indictment is unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny.”

“If it did,” he added, “it would allow the government to criminalize a huge swath of political speech in the United States.” [Pols emphasis]

Here in Colorado, as readers are well aware, we have a prominent political figure who regularly pushes the boundaries of the First Amendment by making threats to kill politicians he doesn’t like. Election conspiracy theorist Joe Oltmann, who recently ended his campaign for governor to run for chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, has built his brand on vows to “build gallows all the way from Washington, D.C., to California” to hang federal officials–as Colorado Newsline reported after one particularly memorable diatribe:

Oltmann listened as his co-host, Max McGuire, read aloud the names of the 19 Senate Republicans who…voted with Democrats to approve an 11-week stopgap spending bill, amid far-right demands to force a government shutdown over federal vaccine mandates for employers.

“There’s your list of 19 traitors to the American people, along with all the other traitors to the American people,” Oltmann said in response. “I want people to go out there and get some wood. The gallows are getting wider and longer. We should be able to build gallows all the way from Washington, D.C., to California.”

“We just have a line of executions of traitors through the United States of America,” Oltmann continued. “If you guys don’t think that’s funny — I think it’s kind of funny, actually.”

“This talk makes me incredibly nervous,” replied McGuire.

If where we’re going here isn’t obvious, we’ll spell it out: how can James Comey be facing federal charges over his “8647” seashells while Joe Oltmann makes far more explicit and specific threats to hang federal officials? And if you really believe Comey should be prosecuted, how can you possibly support Oltmann to be the next Colorado GOP chairman?

Perhaps the answer is that all death threats are not created equal, in which case Republicans should just admit that they’re fine with death threats that their side makes.

Because as the kids say, that’s the vibe they’re giving off.