Court Filing Reveals Secret Service Sent Comey Interview Summary Directly to Trump on Air Force One
Secret Service agents who questioned former F.B.I. Director James B. Comey were instructed to promptly transmit a written summary of the interview to President Trump aboard Air Force One, according to a new court filing submitted by Mr. Comey’s legal team. The internal government documents, which were turned over to Mr. Comey, indicate that the president maintained direct and intense personal involvement in the federal investigation into his longtime adversary, marking a significant departure from historical practices where presidents remained detached from criminal inquiries. The Justice Department formally brought charges against Mr. Comey in April 2025, classifying an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged to read “86 47” as a threat to assassinate the president.
Defense Challenges Prosecution and Highlights Aggressive Law Enforcement Pursuit
Mr. Comey’s lawyers are pressing the judge to dismiss the case, arguing it constitutes a vindictive and selective prosecution driven by the president’s enduring personal animosity. In addition to claiming the social media post constitutes nonthreatening political speech protected by the First Amendment, the defense has asked the court to scrutinize grand jury proceedings for potential misleading statements by prosecutors. The filing details the swift law enforcement response following the deleted post, noting that the Secret Service contacted Mr. Comey by phone, tracked his vehicle as he drove from a North Carolina vacation home toward Virginia, and requested real-time location tracking from his cellular service provider under an exigent circumstances request supported by a senior Department of Justice official.
During the interstate travel, agents temporarily lost track of Mr. Comey’s vehicle after he exited the highway to visit the gravesite of his son, who died in 1995. By the following day, Mr. Comey agreed to a face-to-face interview attended by top lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, alongside a federal prosecutor from Virginia. Government documents noted that President Trump requested a copy of the interview notes and a direct summary for use during an upcoming press conference while traveling on Air Force One, even as he publicly declared in a Fox News interview that he was “not going to get involved” and asserted that the photograph meant assassination.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has stated that prosecutors possess additional evidence beyond the photograph, though its nature has not been disclosed. Meanwhile, defense filings outline unsuccessful F.B.I. efforts to substantiate claims that the term “86” signifies murder in mob vernacular, noting inconclusive database searches, an empty review of a 33-year-old trial transcript where Mr. Comey served as lead prosecutor, and interviews with retired agents. Although former mobster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano told investigators that gangsters understood “86” to mean killing, defense attorneys highlighted that prosecutors utilized statements from a cooperating individual known only as “Person-1″—who admitted a desire to see Mr. Comey jailed—to secure search warrants without informing the signing judge of the witness’s long-standing estrangement and personal bias.
