James Comey Appears To Call For the Assassination Of President Trump

Former FBI Director James Comey is under investigation for posting what appeared to be a death threat against Donald Trump.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by Comey that several US officials interpreted as calling for the assassination of the US president Donald Trump.

In a cryptic message to his Instagram account on Thursday, Comey used seashells to spell out: “86 47”

The caption read: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk”

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The White House responded to Comey’s social media post calling it “what can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States.”

The BBC reports: The number 86 is a slang term whose definitions include ‘to reject’ or ‘to get rid of’, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which also notes that it has more recently been used as a term meaning ‘to kill’.

Trump is the 47th US president. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged the message was a call for the assassination of Trump, but Comey said he opposed violence.

In a post in X, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “We vigorously investigate 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 & we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”

Comey deleted the Instagram post, saying in a follow-up that he “assumed [the sea shells] were a political message”.

“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he added. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

Trump survived two assassination attempts last year.

Current FBI Director Kash Patel responded on social media, saying that the bureau was “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 [Secret Service] on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on X: “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of Trump.”

She said her department and the Secret Service would investigate the matter.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted on X, accusing Comey of “a plea to bad actors/terrorists to assassinate the POTUS’ while traveling internationally”, referring to Trump’s current tour of the Middle East.

The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, also responded on X, commenting: “James Comey causally [sic] calling for my dad to be murdered.”

Comey served as the FBI’s director between 2013-17.

He had a tumultuous tenure that included overseeing the high-profile inquiry into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s email just weeks before the 2016 election that she ended up losing to Trump.