Former FBI Director James Comey was interviewed Friday by the Secret Service following President Donald Trump’s accusation that Comey called for the president’s assassination through an Instagram post.
The ex-FBI director was not arrested following the interview.
Comey, 64, left his suburban Virginia home to attend the interview at the Secret Service’s Washington field office, according to video footage aired by CNN.
A federal law enforcement source confirmed to The Post that the interview took place around 5 p.m.
The controversy stems from a photo Comey posted Thursday evening on Instagram showing seashells arranged to resemble the numbers “8647,” captioned “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
The number “86” is slang in the restaurant industry meaning to get rid of something or someone, while Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump claimed Comey’s post was a veiled call for his assassination.
“He knew exactly what that meant,” Trump said. “A child knows what that meant … That meant ‘assassination.’”
Comey later deleted the Instagram post, saying he did not fully understand the message’s implications, the New York Post reported.
“It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey said, adding that he is now a crime novelist.
Following the incident, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced her department had launched an investigation into what she called a “threat” from the “disgraced former FBI director.”
The accusations come amid heightened security concerns after President Trump was wounded by an assassin’s bullet at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At that event, Secret Service counter-snipers killed the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, within seconds of him opening fire.
Later that year, on September 15, 2024, another would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, attempted to shoot Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Routh was arrested and federally charged after dodging gunfire from agents.
Before his dismissal in May 2017, Comey led the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian officials.
This investigation relied in part on the now-discredited Christopher Steele dossier.
In May 2023, Special Counsel John Durham released a report describing the Russia investigation as “seriously flawed” and without evidence.
Durham’s report stated that U.S. intelligence had obtained information alleging that Hillary Clinton had approved a plan to link Trump to Russia to damage his 2016 campaign.
The report also noted that President Barack Obama had convened a meeting in the Oval Office on Aug. 3, 2016, with Comey and then-CIA Director John Brennan to discuss this intelligence.
In his Fox News interview, Trump called Comey “a dirty cop” and urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue aggressive action against the former FBI director.
