Jimmy Kimmel Calls Comey's '86 47' Post 'A Piece of Art Your Aunt With a Beach House Would Buy on Etsy'

Jimmy Kimmel, amid a planet-sized PR nightmare of his own making, mass ad boycott calls of his ABC late-night show, and a brewing battle between his employer Disney and the FCC, tripled-down Tuesday on his war with the Trump White House by defending former FBI Director James Comey after he was indicted Tuesday on charges related to what the Justice Department called a death threat made against President Donald Trump.

“You think just when you think they’ve hit peak ridiculous making a big thing out of this joke? They then top themselves and charge criminally charge former FBI director Jim Comey who Trump doesn’t like because he did his job and investigated him,” Kimmel said during his opening monologue, still defending calling Melania Trump an “expectant widow” last week.

“And they charged Comey once with obstruction and with making a false statement which went nowhere,” Kimmel continued. “It got thrown out of court. So now they’re charging him again. This time with threatening the president’s life for this. This is not a joke. They’re charging with threatening the president’s life for this photo of seashells that spell out 8647.”

“86 is an old restaurant term. It means get rid of. And Trump is the 47th president,” Kimmel told his audience, showing the Comey Instagram photo, and downplaying the obviously politically-charge statement.

“Trump’s pets in the DOJ are claiming this is some kind of threat or call to violence, which even he should be embarrassed by this,” Kimmel continued. “Put that back up. That is not a threat. That is a piece of art your aunt with a beach house would buy on Etsy.”

Comey was hit Tuesday with a two-count indictment from a federal grand jury in North Carolina, charging Comey with knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of the president and sending a communication in interstate commerce that contained a threat to injure a person. Each charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

The charges stem from an image that Comey posted to Instagram on May 15 of seashells in an “8647” configuration on a beach.

The term “86” is slang for canceling, dismissing or getting rid of something, and Trump’s second term makes him the 47th president. The phrase “8647” is ubiquitous in anti-Trump circles, found on stickers, protest signs, and Democrat politicians, like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have donned regalia displaying it.

Comey responding to the indictment in a video Tuesday saying he is “still innocent” and “not afraid.”

“Well, they’re back. This time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won’t be the end of it, but nothing has changed with me,” Comey said in the Substack. “I’m still innocent. I’m still not afraid. And I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.”

UPI contributed to this article.