Former FBI director James Comey met with the U.S. Secret Service on Friday, after he was called in to discuss a social media post that U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters claimed was a threat against the president, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
Noem, in a post on X, said there was “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether Comey might be subject to further action.
The Secret Service, which is in charge of presidential security and is part of the Department of Homeland Security, interviewed Comey at the Washington field office on Friday afternoon, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The meeting began around 6 p.m. ET and lasted about an hour, the official said. Comey appeared voluntarily after being asked to come in, the source said.
Federal law enforcement agencies were investigating an Instagram post by Comey on Thursday with a photo of the number 8647 formed by seashells on sand with the comment, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
In U.S. slang, the number 86 can be used as a verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, took down the post after a backlash from Trump supporters, saying on Instagram, “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as a call to violently remove Trump from office, including through assassination.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that one recent meaning of the term 86 was “to kill” but that it had not adopted it “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
“Today, federal agents from @SecretService interviewed disgraced former FBI Director Comey regarding a social media post calling for the assassination of President Trump,” Noem said in her post on X.
“I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of @POTUS Trump. This is an ongoing investigation.”
‘He knew exactly what that meant’: Trump
Trump himself on Friday accused Comey of calling for his assassination, rejecting the former FBI director’s explanation that he was not aware of any violent connotation.
“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News before leaving Abu Dhabi while on a four-day Middle East trip, adding that he would leave further action on the matter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and others.
Comey was not available for comment.
The “8647” and “8646” themes have been used as political slogans and on T-shirts during the administrations of both Trump and his predecessor, Democratic U.S. president Joe Biden, the 46th president.
Early in his first term, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.
Comey has been a sharp critic of his former boss, calling him “morally unfit” to lead in a 2018 interview.
Trump himself was accused of using Twitter posts to incite rioters, who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.
Trump last year also posted on social media a video that featured an image of Biden, who was then president, with his hands and feet tied together in the back of a pickup truck.
