Yesterday, James Comey caused quite the stir when he went on Instagram and posted a picture of a shell formation on the beach — obviously one he made — that spelled out “86 47,” which many interpreted as a threat on President Trump’s life.

Since then, everyone’s been arguing over the definition of “86.” As slang goes, it has a wide variety of uses, some of which are more innocent, such as when you run out of a menu item at a restaurant you “86” it or when you get kicked out of a bar for being too drunk or unruly you’re said to be “86’d.” But it is also been used by the Mafia and the military to refer to killing people, and well, it’s a little harder to swallow that the man who prosecuted the Gambino crime family wasn’t aware of its more sinister meaning.

However, it gets worse than that for Comey. After posting the offending shell photo, the very next post on Instagram was him posting the favorable Publisher’s Weekly review of his third crime novel, out next week. //

So let me get this straight, Comey’s book is about successfully prosecuting a right-wing commentator for making vaguely worded threats? Really? (Also, “Samuel Buchanan”? I guess “Patrick Francis” wouldn’t have been on the nose enough for his liberal audience.) //

Comey’s animus towards Trump is beyond well-established. He is not ignorant of what 86 47 means. Nor is he unaware of the fact that the president faced two assassination attempts in the last year. For all these reasons, an argument could be made that Comey is being shown grace by the Trump administration in merely being investigated by the Secret Service over a post obviously calling for his assassination to his followers.

If he is to be interviewed, as my colleague at RealClearPolitics Susan Crabtree has suggested may occur, one can bet he won’t be ambushed and trapped in a bid to do to him what his FBI did to Flynn. Odds are, Comey will enjoy the protections of a system that he did not afford his own political opponents and avoid prosecution.