A directive that a U.S. Secret Service agent acknowledged “in writing” was “legally questionable” was followed through on regardless, former Trump administration official Miles Taylor flagged Monday in an analysis published on his Substack.
That directive came down from an individual identified in court filings as “the # 3 guy at DOJ,” who at the time in question would have been then-Acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle – his position officially described by the Justice Department (DOJ) as the “third-ranking official” at the agency. Authorized in May of 2025, the directive involved tracking former FBI Director James Comey’s phone.
On May 15, 2025, Comey posted a photo of seashells on social media, a post that Trump’s allies have interpreted as a threat on the president’s life. The post immediately sparked a probe among top Trump administration law enforcement officials.
“The Secret Service’s own supervisor put his objection in writing. Pinging the phone ‘could be done,’ he warned, ‘but it would be a bad idea,’” Taylor wrote, citing new court records recently made public.
“Warrantless emergency tracking requires an imminent threat to life, and ‘we did not believe that anyone’s life was in immediate danger.’ It was, in his words, ‘legally questionable.’ His boss agreed, according to the emails, ‘but said we might do it anyway.’ And they did.”
Despite the apparent concern, a Secret Service agent requested data from Verizon “the next day,” Taylor wrote, to track Comey’s phone, and indicated that it was “true and correct” that the request involved “an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury.”
“There was no emergency, and everyone involved seemingly knew it,” Taylor wrote. “Agents then tracked Comey electronically and tailed him as he and his wife drove home from North Carolina to Virginia, including as they stopped to visit the grave of their deceased son.”
Comey would ultimately be indicted on two felony counts related to his Instagram post, indictments that his legal team has since asked be dismissed out of hand.
Taylor expressed great concern, however, over the precedent that had been set with the Trump administration’s actions.
“The precedent is not really about Comey. It’s about each of our constitutional rights, the phones in our pockets, and about what we are allowed to say before the government reaches for those devices,” Taylor wrote.
“The new details from last week show that the president has given himself the ability to name an enemy, point to that enemy’s free speech, and then wiretap him over it without the approval of any judge. That’s at least three constitutional violations.”
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