WASHINGTON: US law enforcement agencies are investigating an alleged assassination threat against President Donald Trump by former FBI director James Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
The announcement by Noem came after Comey made a now-deleted post on Instagram that showed an image of “86 47” spelled out in sea shells, with “86” being slang for kill and Trump the 47th president.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website that one recent meaning of the term was “to kill” but that it had not adopted that “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use.”
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem posted on X.
“DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately,” she said.
Comey later said on Instagram that he posted “a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.”
“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he said.
Officials from the Trump administration, along with Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., viewed Comey’s post as a threat to the president’s life.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey had captioned the post, the New York Post reported.
Trump was wounded in the ear during an assassination attempt that took place while he was holding a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, and has faced other threats.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, 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.
Early in his first term, in May 2017, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to help Trump get elected.
Republicans and Democrats have heavily criticised the former FBI director for his investigations into Trump and Clinton and how he handled each in the public sphere.
Director Kash Patel said the bureau is coordinating with the US Secret Service. Patel confirmed that the FBI will fully support the Secret Service’s investigation into the post allegedly targeting Trump.
Sharing a post on X, Patel said, “We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”
