James Comey calls Instagram post controversy 'bit of a distraction'

Former FBI director James Comey says that he's still a bit bewildered over how a seemingly innocent Instagram shot of shells arranged in the sand led to allegations by Donald Trump among others that he was calling for the president's assassination and to an interview with the Secret Service.

It's been a bit of a distraction, honestly, Comey said with a weary laugh Monday night during an appearance at a Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Comey was promoting FDR Drive, a crime novel coming out this week. One of the book's themes, ironically, is weighing the potential of speech to incite others to violence.

Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's first presidential campaign, explained Monday that he and his wife, Patrice, had been returning from a walk on the beach last Thursday when they came upon some shells organised in a way that resembled numbers, including 86.

They speculated over whether it was a home address, or a political message. His wife noted that 86 in some restaurants means they had run out of an ingredient. Comey remembered it was slang for saying something was boring and should be ditched.

And she said, 'You should take a picture of it.' So I took a picture of it, and then we walk home and she said, 'You should really put that on Instagram. It's kind of a cool thing.' I said, 'You're right. It's a cool thing,' he explained.

To many viewers, the numbers seemed to spell out 86 and 47. Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning to throw out, to get rid of or to refuse service to. It notes: Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of 'to kill.'  Trump is the country's 47th president.

Some hours later she (Patrice) said to me, 'You know, people on the internet are saying you're calling for the assassination of Donald Trump," Comey explained. And I said, 'Well, if they're saying that, I'm taking it down because I don't want any part of violence.'"  Comey quickly pulled the image, but it had already reached the attention of Trump and other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Trump himself, interviewed on Friday on Fox News, said that Comey "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.

Comey confirmed Monday that he received a call from the Secret Service later Thursday, spoke to them on the phone and agreed to meet with them in person.

"And so they gave me a ride to their headquarters, the Washington field office interviewed me," he said. It seems like a year ago, but it was Friday, right? I told them what I just told you. And so I, it seems like a thing that I don't fully understand and maybe it'll go away now."  Comey has written several books since Trump fired him, including the million-selling memoir A Higher Loyalty. More recently, he has taken up fiction, his previous novels including Central Park Drive and Westport.