James Comey Meets With Secret Service Over ’86 47′ Post | EUROtoday

(Reuters) – Former FBI director James Comey met with the U.S. Secret Service on Friday, after he was referred to as in to debate a social media put up that Donald Trump’s supporters claimed was a risk in opposition to the president, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned.

Noem, in a put up on X, mentioned there was “an ongoing investigation” however gave no indication of whether or not Comey is perhaps topic to additional motion.

The Secret Service, which is answerable for presidential safety and is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, interviewed Comey on the Washington discipline workplace on Friday afternoon, based on a regulation enforcement official who spoke on situation of anonymity.

The assembly started round 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) and lasted about an hour, the official mentioned. Comey appeared voluntarily after being requested to return in, the supply mentioned.

Federal regulation enforcement companies had been investigating an Instagram put up by Comey on Thursday with a photograph of the quantity 8647 shaped by seashells on sand with the remark, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

In U.S. slang, the quantity 86 can be utilized as a verb which means to throw anyone out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly. Trump is the forty seventh president of the United States.

Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, took down the put up 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 name to violently take away Trump from workplace, together with by way of assassination.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its web site that one latest which means of the time period 86 was “to kill” however 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 mentioned. “I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of @POTUS Trump. This is an ongoing investigation.”

Trump himself on Friday accused Comey of calling for his assassination, rejecting the previous FBI director’s clarification that he was not conscious of any violent connotation.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump mentioned in an interview with Fox News earlier than leaving Abu Dhabi whereas on a four-day Middle East journey, including that he would go away additional motion on the matter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and others.

Comey was not accessible for remark.

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 President Joe Biden, the 46th U.S. 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 guide in a 2018 interview.

Trump himself was accused of utilizing Twitter posts to incite rioters, who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to forestall the certification of Biden’s election victory.

Trump final yr additionally posted on social media a video that featured a picture of Biden, who was then president, together with his arms and ft tied collectively behind a pickup truck.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Joe Bavier, Cynthia Osterman and Diane Craft)