Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche walks through the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden
New details about President Donald Trump's efforts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey stunned a CNN panel on Wednesday.
Katelyn Polantz, CNN's senior legal correspondent, reported during "The Arena" on Wednesday that Trump prosecutors sought testimony from mobster Sammy "The Bull" Gravano about whether the now-infamous "86 47" picture that Comey posted on his Instagram could be a threat against the president's life. Gravano told prosecutors that the term 86 "could" refer to killing, but demurred on whether it actually did mean it in the context of the Comey case, Polantz reported.
Comey's lawyers had a field day with the discovery in a new court filing, Polantz added.
"If itweren't made in the context ofseeking to deprive a man of his liberty, it would be laughable," John Gleason, a former judge, wrote in a new court filing, according to Polantz. "I have never come into contactwith a single recordedconversation where a mafiamember uses 86 in any way, shapeor form, let alone to refer tokilling or murder. There isliterally no support for thecentral allegation on which the case rests."
The news caught multiple panelists off guard. Joe Crowley, the former DNC chairman, called the revelation "ridiculous."
"To me, it's selective.It's vindictive in terms ofthis prosecution," Crowley said. "No one believes that Comey in any way, shape, or form ever had any intention of causing violence to the president. And it just, to me, is ridiculous."
It also stunned former Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona.
"They're just looking for something to go after James Comey for, and this happened tobe it," Flake said.