The phrase "86 47" needs a translation. "86" is American slang, borrowed from restaurant kitchens, for eliminating or cutting something. "47" is the number of the current president. Federal prosecutors say that combination, posted by former FBI Director James Comey alongside seashells, reads plainly as a death threat against President Trump.
The Justice Department is arguing the case should not be dismissed. Prosecutors filed a response telling the judge that "there is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey's post could read it to mean 'Kill President Trump.'" Read that carefully: the government's claim is that the post could be read that way, not that the meaning is settled. The court has not yet ruled.
What went into the government's filing
A motion to dismiss asks a court to end a case before trial on the theory that the charge cannot legally hold. The Justice Department's filing argues it can. To support that, prosecutors cited Comey's own novel.
The argument was built around the objective viewer standard, a legal test that asks what a reasonable outside observer would conclude from the content in question, not what the person who posted it claims to have meant. On that standard, the government says, the post reads as a threat on the president's life. The judge has not yet ruled on whether the case moves forward.