James Comey, the former director of the FBI, is under investigation for a since-deleted Instagram post that some observers say could be interpreted as a death threat against President Donald Trump.
Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday that Comey is being investigated both by the DHS and Secret Service.
The since-deleted post contained an image of sea-shells arranged to form the numbers “8647.” The number “86” is slang meaning “to get rid of” or “to kill.”
Comey has stated that he did not intend the message as a threat or political message. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” Comey commented after taking the original post down.
The post’s removal did not stop criticism, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s call for Comey’s imprisonment in a Thursday appearance on Fox News.
Some in the Trump administration, most notably the White House’s deputy chief of staff, Taylor Budowich, have connected Comey’s potential threat against Trump to the president’s recent speech in Riyadh condemning nation-building and advocating peace in the Middle East.
Comey has historically been very supportive of Republican proponents of nation-building, giving money both to John McCain’s ultra-hawkish 2008 presidential campaign and to Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign before being appointed FBI director by President Barack Obama in 2013. Comey also served as U.S attorney in Manhattan and as deputy attorney general under the neoconservative George W. Bush administration.
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