Former FBI Director James Comey under investigation for post seen as a potential threat to Trump’s life

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Former FBI Director James Comey under investigation for post seen as a potential threat to Trump’s life

Former FBI Director James Comey speaks at Harvard Kennedy School with Harvard’s Eric Rosenbach on February 24, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Paul Marotta | Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by former FBI Director 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 that several U.S. officials interpreted as calling for the assassination of 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday.

In a now-deleted post on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Comey shared a photo of what he described as a “shell formation” on a beach that formed the numbers “8647.” The post was swiftly condemned by administration officials, Republican lawmakers and Trump allies who said it blatantly targeted Trump, the 47th president of the United States.

According to the 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 dictionary, “eighty-six” can informally mean “to get rid of.”

“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” Noem 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

A spokesperson for the Secret Service, which is part of DHS, said the agency “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,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications said in a statement.

Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, accused Comey of putting out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States.”

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Budowich wrote on X.

The president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. accused Comey of “causally calling for my dad to be murdered.”

Comey denied that his post was meant as a threat, saying in a statement that he was unaware people linked the specific numeric arrangement with violence.

“I didn’t realize some folks associate it with violence. That didn’t occur to me when I saw it but I am opposed to violence in all circumstances so I took it down,” he said.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., called for Comey to be 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, while Chris LaCivita, Trump’s former campaign manager, said he would have had Comey’s home raided over the post.

FBI Director Kash Patel 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

bureau is prepared to “provide all necessary support” to the Secret Service, which holds primary jurisdiction over the investigation.

Comey was only four years into a 10-year term when Trump fired him in May 2017.

Under Comey, the FBI opened an investigation into allegations that members of Trump’s 2016 campaign had contact with Russian entities. Trump fired Comey months after that investigation was made public and 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 was among the factors that led to Comey’s termination.

The primary motive for his dismissal,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 said at the time, was a conclusion by senior Justice Department officials that Comey bungled an investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#FBI #Director #James #Comey #investigation #post #potential #threat #Trumps #life

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up