Republicans put forth a resolution on Friday that would bar former FBI Director James Comey from ever being employed by the federal government due to an Instagram post that has questioned both his judgment and his knowledge of common criminal vernacular, The Hill first reported.
On Thursday, Comey posted a photo on his Instagram account that showed seashells spelling out “86 47,” which has been interpreted as “take out” the 47th president, in reference to President Donald Trump.
Comey has since deleted the post and pleaded ignorance to the number’s implications. Republicans have been unmoved by Comey’s mea culpa, knowing he has spent the better part of his career in law enforcement, and find it unlikely he did not know what the numbers mean.
Friday’s resolution “urges the relevant authorities to take every relevant action to ensure that [Comey] is never again permitted to serve as an employee of the federal government” and requests that the Department of Justice “conduct a full and comprehensive investigation … and release the findings of that investigation to the relevant House Committees and the public.”
Comey, who in his testimony to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee in 2019 said some variation of “I don’t know” or “I can’t remember” 245 times, said in his retraction of the “86 47” post, “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took down the post.”
Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, one of the co-authors of the resolution, labeled Comey’s post a “shocking betrayal of the trust once placed in him by the American people” and accused Comey of “the unthinkable: calling for violence against our Commander-in-Chief.”
“That someone who once held one of our nation’s most sacred positions of law enforcement would incite such dangerous rhetoric is not just alarming — it’s disqualifying and un-American,” Pfluger said in a statement. “This resolution demands the accountability and transparency the American people deserve, ensuring Comey never again holds a position of public trust.”
Also on Friday, Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service in its offices in Washington.
“The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to CNN. “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.”