Is someone trying to eliminate President Trump? James Comey under investigation over alleged threat in Instagram post
Former FBI Director James Comey is under investigation from the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service after posting a picture to Instagram that a number of U.S. officials saw as threatening to President Donald Trump.
The now deleted post from Comey showed a shell formation spelling the numbers "8647," which Trump allies claim can be interpreted as a reference to "eighty-sixing" the 47th president, which is slang for killing someone.
The investigation is being led by the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other officials in the administration were highly critical of Comey's post. Comey insisted his post carried no harmful intentions, and claimed it was poorly interpreted.
Federal Officials Respond to Potential Threat
Secretary of Homeland Security Noem, referred to the post as a, “call for the assassination,” of the president, noting, “we have reason to believe they take that so seriously” as officials. The Secret Service said in a statement it is “vigorously investigating anything that can be deemed a potential threat against one of our protectees,” but it is not able to comment on matters of ongoing protective intelligence.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said, “That can clearly be taken as a hit,” on the president. Donald Trump Jr. claimed Comey is, “casually calling for [his] dad to be murdered,” and several Republicans, including Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., clamored for Comey to be arrested. Chris LaCivita, a senior advisor to Trump, said he would have ordered a raid on Comey’s home.
The post James Comey deleted from his Instagram is being interpreted as a message to the president, according to Trump's team. Photo: Industan Times
Comey denies intent to intimidate, deletes post
Comey responded to the backlash by stating that the numeric combination in his post carried no violent implications. He stated, "I didn’t know some folks associate it with violence. That didn't occur to me when I saw it, but I am against violence in all events so I took it down."
The backlash comes in light of a long-standing political feud that found new life following Comey's dismissal from his post as FBI Director. He was dismissed by Trump in 2017, four years into a ten-year term, directly following the initiation of an FBI investigation into possible connections between members of Trump's 2016 campaign, and Russian operatives. The White House at the time stated that Comey's handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton's possible misuse of classified information was the reason for termination.
