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A former FBI boss is currently under investigation for ‘threatening’ President Donald Trump in a now-deleted Instagram post.
James Comey was the director of the FBI until 2017 and is now being investigated for his seemingly innocuous post on social media.
Comey took to Instagram on Thursday (May 15) to share an image of seashells in a ‘8647’ formation.
In the caption, he wrote: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
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However, this is now being questioned as a potential ‘threat’ against the US president with Trump supporters interpreting it as a message for assassination.
According to reports, 86 is considered as a slang term for getting rid of something and has more recently been used to mean killing someone.
The US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has said that this is a ‘threat’ against Trump,.
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On X, formerly Twitter, she wrote: “Disgraced former FBI director James Comey just called for the assassination of POTUS Trump.
“DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”
However, Comey has since spoken out to defend himself.
Deleting the original post, the former FBI boss released a statement where he denied endorsing any violence.
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He wrote: “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message.
“I didn’t realize 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.”
According to the Guardian, the US Secret Service is ‘aware of the incident’ and are said be ‘vigorously’ investigating any possible threat.
Kash Patel, who is the current director of the FBI, also spoke out on X, saying: “We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI director James Comey, directed at President Trump.
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“We, the FBI, will provide all necessary support.”
Who is James Comey?
James Comey held the position of director of the FBI for four years from 2013 to 2017 before he was fired after Trump entered the Oval Office for his first term as president.
At the time, Trump told reporters that he had fired Comey ‘because he wasn’t doing a good job’ and revealed that he would let him go irrespective of any recommendation from the Justice Department.
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However, several FBI insiders have spoken out to claim that Comey lost his job because ‘he refused to end the Russia investigation’.
At the time, Comey was leading the criminal investigation into meddling by Russia in the US election.