James Comey Was Tailed By Unmarked Cars, Tracked By Secret Service After His Controversial Post On Trump: Report
The Secret Service ordered law enforcement officers to track former FBI Director James Comey on the day after he posted a photo of seashells arranged to spell out “86 47,” a new report states.
According to The New York Times, authorities in unmarked cars and plain clothes tailed Comey and his wife from their vacation in North Carolina to their home in Virginia — where federal authorities were waiting to take him to Washington for an interview. Three government officials also told The New York Times that authorities were tracking Comey’s phone.
These actions were taken a day after the former FBI director posted a picture to social media– seashells Comey had found while walking on the beach, arranged to form the anti-Trump slogan “86 47.” Many within the president’s administration have claimed that the phrase amounts to calling for Donald Trump’s assassination– or even actively planning it. After social media erupted in response to the post, Comey removed it and stated that he was not aware of any violent connotation of the phrase.
Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service in a phone call that — where he assured them he posed no threat to the president.
“Typically, that would have been the extent of an investigation into someone like Mr. Comey, who has no violent history and previously led the federal government’s foremost law enforcement agency, according to former Secret Service officials, because there was more than enough to establish that Mr. Comey was not an imminent threat,” the Times report stated.
It’s unclear whether it was Secret Service personnel or local law enforcement that engaged in the tailing and tracking of Comey– actions whose intensity would only be warranted by an individual that posed an active threat or was under the Service’s protection.
The report continues:
To justify following Mr. Comey, the Secret Service cited “exigent” circumstances, according to two of the government officials, using a term that in law enforcement means a pressing need to take immediate action. It is unclear what those exigent circumstances were. At the time, Mr. Trump was traveling in the Middle East.
Trump fired Comey, appointed by former president Barack Obama, during his first term in 2017. The president has repeatedly called for various forms of retribution against his former employee, including an IRS inquiry and an FBI probe.
A White House official told the Times that the Secret Service had launched their own investigation into Comey independent of the administration. Both Comey’s representative and the Secret Service declined to give a comment to the Times.
