https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70nqk9rlxpo
Former FBI director James Comey is being investigated by the Secret Service after he shared then deleted a social media post, which Republicans alleged was an incitement to violence against US President Donald Trump.

Comey posted on Instagram a photo of seashells that spelled the numbers "8647", which he captioned: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."

The number 86 is a slang term whose definitions include "to reject" or "to get rid of", according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which also notes that it has more recently been used as a term meaning "to kill". And Trump is the 47th US president.

Comey insisted he did not know what the numbers meant, but Trump has disputed that.

Comey deleted the Instagram post, saying in a follow-up that he "assumed [the sea shells] were a political message".

"I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence," he added. "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down."

But Trump argued that "a child knows what that meant".

"That meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear," Trump told Fox News in an interview, clips of which were released before broadcast on Friday. "Now, he wasn't very competent, but he was competent enough to know what that meant."

In a post in X, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "We vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.

"We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters."

Trump survived two assassination attempts last year.

Current FBI Director Kash Patel responded on social media, saying that the bureau was "aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump".