Former FBI Director James Comey was escorted by U.S. Secret Service agents to their Washington Field Office on Friday afternoon for an interview, federal law enforcement sources confirmed. Comey was sought for questioning over a social media post that, according to several administration officials, seemingly called for violence against President Trump.
Footage obtained by CNN shows Comey, 64, being escorted from his Northern Virginia home just before 6 p.m. on Friday.
The interview was conducted as part of an ongoing investigation and was expected to help investigators assess the purpose and intent of the post, and whether the former FBI director intended to communicate a threat.
Comey ignited a firestorm on social media earlier this week posted a collection of sea shells arranged to display the numbers “8647.”
In U.S. parlance, “86” can be used as a slang term meaning to throw out, remove and in some contexts, kill. The 47 refers to President Trump, who is currently serving as the 47th President of the United States, leading to the assumption among many conservative pundits and officials that Comey was calling for violence against the president.
Comey later deleted the post and claimed he did not know the potential meaning behind the slang term. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” Comey wrote in a follow-up post.
Any decision on whether charges should be filed would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump said on Friday. It is unclear whether Comey will face criminal charges, however, as the bar to prove his comments constituted a threat is quite high.
An interview is standard U.S. Secret Service procedure for any individual who makes what could be construed as a threat against a current or former president.
“The Secret Service 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,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
On-the-ground reporter Drew Hernandez took issue with the nonchalant manner in which Comey’s interview was conducted, noting that the seemingly cordial interaction presents a stark contrast to the treatment of January 6 prisoners and other individuals targeted by the previous administration.
“Comey got a comfy little escort to the Secret Service office,” Hernandez wrote in an X post. “If it were anyone of us; Our homes would have been raided at 5am; Our families all cuffed and humiliated; And we would be in prison in less than 24 hours.”
Several Trump Administration officials, including National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, have asserted that Comey was calling for President Trump’s assassination.
While speaking with Fox News, Jesse Watters, Gabbard stressed that the post should not be taken likely given the two assassination attempts targeting Trump last summer.
“We’re taking this very seriously. As you mentioned, the Department of Homeland Security and specifically Sean Curran, the current Secret Service director, a man who has been willing to lay down his life as the lead of President Trump’s Secret Service detail for years now. He takes this seriously and is leading the investigation into this threat. There has to be accountability for this.”