FBI Director Patel says he's had to divert resources to investigate 'copycats' of Comey '86 47' post
FBI Director Kash Patel said he has been forced to divert agents to investigate "copycats" of potential threats to President Donald Trump as a result of former FBI Director James Comey's "86 47" social media post.
Bureau officials told Fox News Digital it needs to be focused on "public safety, not cleaning up after political stunts."
Patel sat down for an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier and revealed that the FBI has had to investigate "copycats" because of Comey's "beachside venture."
"Do you know how many agents I've had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists because everywhere across this country, people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke and they can do it because he did it?" Patel said.
"That's what I'm having to deal with every single day, and that's what I'm having to pull my agents and analysts off because he thought it was funny to go out there and make a political statement," he continued.
An FBI official told Fox News Digital that they cannot disclose the number of "copycat" incidents due to ongoing investigations but described the number to Fox News Digital as "significant."
Comey met with Secret Service officials in Washington this month for an interview about his "86 47" Instagram post, two sources briefed on the meeting told Fox News.
Comey is under investigation for the now-deleted Instagram post that showed seashells arranged on a beach to read "86 47."
"Cool shell formation on my beach walk," he wrote along with the post. Some have interpreted the post to mean "86" – get rid of – "47," or Donald Trump, the 47th president.
"What people need to understand is that every copycat threat forces the FBI to divert time, agents and resources; resources that should be spent saving lives and taking criminals and deadly drugs off our streets," an FBI official told Fox News Digital. "This kind of chaos was normalized by someone who knows better, and the director reminds lawmakers, especially in places like California and New York that have defended Comey, that we should be focused on public safety, not cleaning up after political stunts."
Comey offered an explanation for the post after he received backlash on social media.
"I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message," the subsequent post from Comey said. "I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down."
The president, in a separate May interview with Baier, didn't accept Comey's explanation.
"He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant," Trump told Baier. "If you're the FBI director, and you don't know what that meant, that meant 'assassination,' and it says it loud and clear."
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