CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Out Secret Service Grilling Of Comey Over ‘Silly’ Trump ‘8647’ Post: ‘Is Any Of This Normal?’

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins called out the grilling former FBI Director James Comey was subjected to over a “silly” post that President Donald Trump and others construed as an “assassination threat.”

Comey is in hot water over an Instagram post featuring a photo of seashells spelling out the numbers “86” and “47” and the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Trump promptly lashed out at Comey, and on Friday night the Secret Service conducted a threat interview with Comey at his house.

On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins called Comey’s message a “silly social media post that obviously was in poor taste” and asked if this treatment of it was at all “normal”:

KAITLAN COLLINS: During that long flight back, the President has been focused on breaking news back at home, including former FBI director, James Comey, who was brought in tonight for questioning by the Secret Service. We saw Comey, as he was leaving his Virginia home, to go to answer their questions, at a field office in D.C.

And chances are you probably know what this is about. Comey’s since- deleted social media post, showing shells on a beach that spelled out 8647, meaning, 86 which usually means to get rid of something, and 47 as in the 47th President of the United States, who said tonight that he believes that was a threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director, and you don’t know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.

And he’s calling for the assassination of the President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We’re told, Comey was interviewed voluntarily after being contacted by the Secret Service.

That decision on whether or not to ultimately charge him, which we don’t know if it’s going to happen yet, could lie with Jeanine Pirro, who is the new interim U.S. attorney in Washington.

My lead sources tonight are:

CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, John Miller.

And former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Tom Dupree.

And it’s great to have you both here.

John, you’ve been getting all the reporting on this. What are you hearing about what happened, during this questioning of the Secret Service, or of James Comey by the Secret Service tonight?

JOHN MILLER: Well, very unusual, Kaitlan. The Secret Service came to his house, picked him up with the Deputy Assistant Special Agent in Charge, and along with Comey’s lawyer, drove him to the Secret Service field office.

Remember, this is a former FBI director, former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

But he was brought in, and they were putting him through the standard set of threat questions. Where are you working now? Where do you reside? Do you have access to weapons? Do you own any weapons? Was this a threat to the President? Where did you come across these shells? What did you mean with that posting? Did you mean it as a threat?

And they dutifully recorded that interview, along with their investigation that goes with it, and they’ll give that to the U.S. Attorney, either in Washington, D.C., or, just as likely, in North Carolina, where this beach and these shells allegedly were, to determine if it fits any statute which calls for a clear threat.

It’s a crime to threaten the President of the United States, a specific crime, but it still has to be a clear threat. And this might not be that.

COLLINS: John, is any of this normal in your view? Is this typically how silly social media posts that obviously was in poor taste would be handled, in your view?

MILLER: Not in the slightest bit. As a former NYPD official who dealt with a very busy Threat Management Unit, we had far more specific threats that came in than this one, that were turned down by prosecutors, simply because they weren’t a clear and specific threat.

If you look at the merchandise online, on Amazon, on eBay, on Etsy, you could have, any time during the campaign, bought and worn T-shirts that said 8646, meaning, Get rid of Joe Biden. Those items are still on sale. 8647, those items are on sale now.

The fact that they didn’t investigate those companies, or the people who bought those items, or the people that wear those items, but they singled out James Comey with this fairly vague post, makes it look like a selective prosecution.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.