Politics
Secret Service Launches Investigation Into James Comey For Allegedly Threatening Trump
Federal law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that former FBI Director James Comey is being investigated after he allegedly threatened violence against President Donald Trump in a social media post.
Comey ignited a firestorm on social media when he posted a collection of sea shells arranged to display the numbers “8647.”
In U.S. parlance, “86” can be used as a slang term meaning to throw out, remove and in some contexts, kill. The 47 refers to President Trump, who is currently serving as the 47th President of the United States, leading to the assumption among many conservative pundits and officials that Comey was calling for violence against President Trump.
Photo: James Comey via Instagram
Comey later deleted the post and claimed he was unaware the message could be viewed as a call for political violence in a follow-up statement.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” the former FBI director, who was fired by Trump in 2017, wrote. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
The U.S. Secret Service said it was aware of Comey’s post but did not assess its meaning.
“The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
An unnamed federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY that the Secret Service was sending agents to question Comey about his post. The source added that such a visit is standard procedure for anyone posting what can be perceived as a threat against a former or current president.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency is responsible for overseeing the Secret Service, confirmed the existence of the investigation in an X post. “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem wrote. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”
While speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard described the alleged threat as “serious” and suggested that Comey should be imprisoned.
“Are you buying that the former FBI director didn’t know what ’86 Trump’ meant?” Watters asked.
“Absolutely not, Jesse. That, that is a ridiculous and insane statement to make, certainly within this context, but especially coming from a guy who’s the former director of the FBI, a guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, people who know and execute other humans, and use this exact lingo of 86,” Gabbard responded.
“Comey himself admitted in his follow-on message that he knew that this was a political statement. Well, the only reason he knew that, Jesse, was because a little over a month ago, a bunch of anti-Trump, anti-Elon Musk protesters were proliferating the use of this 86-47 slogan, which was a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States,” she added, referencing the string of violent acts of vandalism and left-wing political violence that has erupted since Trump was sworn in for his second term.
Gabbard stressed that the post should not be taken likely given the two assassination attempts targeting Trump last summer.
“We’re taking this very seriously. As you mentioned, the Department of Homeland Security and specifically Sean Curran, the current Secret Service director, a man who has been willing to lay down his life as the lead of President Trump’s Secret Service detail for years now. He takes this seriously and is leading the investigation into this threat. There has to be accountability for this.”
