I know, if you’re like me you’re sick of seeing James Comey’s face… Sick of talking about him…. Sick of seeing him back in the news. I get it. But I think you’re going to find this very interesting, if not almost impossible to believe. Some people have theorized that, in fact, this whole saga was just a PR campaign for Comey’s upcoming book, called “FDR Drive”.  You know the old saying that goes “There’s no such thing as bad press.” Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that if you actually look into Comey’s new book, the plot almost perfectly parallels what happened this week with the 8647 fiasco! Here’s a quick summary from the book jacket: So let me get this straight…. James Comey rights a book about a far-right political figure who puts out calls for violence by saying “something should be done” about his enemies, and then people take up that call and people start dying. Are you kidding me? We truly are living in a simulation! Or….this whole thing is just one huge (very poorly imagined) PR stunt. I always like to check my assumptions and biases, so I asked ChatGPT if it noticed any similarities between the two and it called the parallels “striking”.  Take a look: The “8647” Controversy On May 15, 2025, Comey posted a photo on Instagram showing seashells arranged to form “8647,” captioned “cool shell formation on my beachwalk.” Critics interpreted this as a veiled threat against President Donald Trump, combining “86” (slang for “eliminate”) with “47” (Trump being the 47th president). Comey deleted the post, stating he was unaware of the violent connotation and intended it as a political message. Nevertheless, the Secret Service initiated an investigation, and Trump labeled Comey a “dirty cop,” accusing him of calling for assassination. FDR Drive: A Synopsis Released on May 20, 2025, FDR Drive is the third installment in Comey’s Nora Carleton series. The novel follows federal prosecutor Nora Carleton and investigator Benny Dugan as they confront a deadly sect of political extremists. The antagonists include a far-right internet personality who incites violence through disinformation, leading to domestic terror threats. The narrative explores the challenges of prosecuting speech that crosses into incitement and the complexities of combating political extremism. Parallels Between Reality and Fiction The overlap between the “8647” incident and FDR Drive is striking: Themes of Political Extremism: Both the real-life controversy and the novel delve into the dangers of radical ideologies and their potential to incite violence. Disinformation and Its Consequences: Comey’s novel addresses how misinformation can lead to real-world harm, mirroring concerns raised by the interpretation of his Instagram post. Legal and Ethical Dilemmas: FDR Drive explores the fine line between free speech and incitement, a debate echoed in the public’s reaction to Comey’s post.  These parallels suggest that Comey’s experiences and perspectives inform his fiction, blurring the lines between his real-life controversies and the narratives he crafts. Meanwhile, here is Comey on Late Night With Stephen Colbert, telling a whopper of a lie that I think not even Colbert believed: Omg…. you gotta be kidding. The largest load of BS i have heard all year. pic.twitter.com/Vl6U9obNK3 JAMES COMEY: “My wife and I were walking on the beach, and saw those numbers in shells on the beach… somebody else did it. We were on a walk, preparing for this week…she… — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 21, 2025 JAMES COMEY: “My wife and I were walking on the beach, and saw those numbers in shells on the beach… somebody else did it. We were on a walk, preparing for this week…she said, why’d somebody put their address in the sand?” “We looked at it, trying to figure out what it was. She’d long been a server in restaurants. She said, you know what I think it is? A reference to restaurants. When you’d 86 something at a restaurant. I said, no, I remember as a kid, you’d say ’86’ to get out of a place. This place stinks, let’s 86 it.” “So I said, I think it’s a clever political message. She said, you should take a picture. I said, sure. She said, you should Instagram that. And then, boom.” It turns out I’m not the only one to pick up on the similarities…. John Berman from CNN pressed Comey on it today. Take a look Jim Comey: Actually, it still doesn’t (hit me), that it’s (8647) associated with violence. John Berman: It still doesn’t, even though people have pointed it out, that it has been used in that context? Jim Comey: Yeah, I’ve never seen it used in that context or heard it used in that context. Still… John Berman: How was your interview with the Secret Service about this? Jim Comey: Oh, good. They’re total pros. I’ve worked with Secret Service for many, many years, and they asked the right questions, trying to understand why I did it. We had a very similar conversation to the one you and I just had. John Berman: Did you leave thinking that they believed you, or did you leave thinking they still had concerns? Jim Comey: Well, I don’t have any reason to believe they don’t believe me. And so I feel like they asked John Berman: Your book is about protected speech when protected speech becomes political violence. Is that a fair way to characterize it? It’s about an extreme podcaster who talks about things, and then there are acts of political violence. Jim Comey: Right. It’s about a right-wing extremist trying to motivate followers to violence through his words in his broadcast. John Berman: It’s interesting that your book is about that, and now there is this discussion about speech, things said, and whether it can be motivating toward violence. Yes? Jim Comey: Yeah, not interesting to me. A bit of a distraction, actually. But The book’s about an important question. I don’t see the seashell thing as an important issue, but I hope folks will read the book and see that it’s a great thriller, but it’s also about things that are important and current. John Berman: How challenging is it to write political fiction now when it seems like almost every sensational political event that could happen has happened in real life? Jim Comey: Yeah, and some of the stuff that goes on, a journalist being invited to a signal chat. If you put it in your novel, your editor would say, Come on, cut that out. This is fiction, but it’s got to be real. So truth continues to surprise and be stranger than fiction. I’m trying to write very real fiction, so show people.