Former FBI Director James Comey has provoked an outcry from the Trump administration after he briefly posted a photo to Instagram that federal officials alleged was a call for violence against President Trump — a claim Comey pushed back on.

Axar.az reports, citing CBC news, Comey was interviewed Friday by Secret Service agents investigating the post at their field office in Washington, D.C. The interview wrapped roughly 90 minutes after it was slated to begin.

The image shared by Comey — a longtime Trump foe — showed seashells in sand arranged to form the numbers "86 47," according to screenshots shared by Trump administration officials.

He did not make his meaning clear, but administration officials and some of his supporters interpreted the numbers as referring to Mr. Trump's status as the 47th president and the slang term "eighty-six," which has often been used to mean "eject" or "remove."

Comey later deleted the image. In a follow-up Instagram post Thursday night, Comey wrote that he "posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. 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."

In an interview with Fox News, the president claimed Comey knew "exactly what that meant" when he posted the image on Instagram. "That meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear," Mr. Trump told Fox's Bret Baier. He also called the post "a terrible thing" and Comey a "dirty cop."

When asked what the response to Comey's post should be, Mr. Trump said, "I don't want to take a position on it because that's going to be up to Pam and all of the great people," referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Comey and Mr. Trump have sparred for years. Comey served as FBI director from 2013 until he was fired by Mr. Trump in 2017, during the president's first White House term.

For his part, Comey has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump since his firing, calling him "morally unfit" to be president in a 2018 interview.