Documents Reveal That Secret Service Interviewed Eminem over Anti-Trump 'Threatening Lyrics'
Who really takes song lyrics seriously? The Secret Service does when they can be construed to be a threat from rapper Eminem against President Donald Trump and his family.
Eminem hinted at a brush with the Secret Service in a track titled “The Ringer,” which was released in August 2018.
“‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service / To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him / Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists / I said, ‘Only when it comes to ink and lyricists,’” the song’s lyrics went.
Intrigued by the possibilities, BuzzFeed News filed a Freedom of Information request and found out that, in fact, the Secret Service had paid the rapper a visit.
What an FOI
“TMZ Emailed The Secret Service About Eminem’s Trump Lyrics. Agents Then Investigated The Rapper.”https://t.co/BAJqneCigy via @jasonleopold pic.twitter.com/3qoDB9md5j— Hazel Shearing (@hazelshearing) October 25, 2019
We live in a weird timeline, when a rapper who dropped a few bars and get into questioning by the Secret Service. #Eminem has had strong language in his lyrics before. So, the Secret Service should only listen to jazz? Since, this create so much work for them over nothing. pic.twitter.com/Bkzo14Mmzp
— Minbane (@MinBaneWP) October 24, 2019
The partially redacted documents were provided this week and show that the Secret Service was concerned that Eminem showed “inappropriate behavior” concerning the president and “threatens” Ivanka Trump.
The Secret Service focused on a 2017 song, documents said.
The song “was about a murder that he could remember and must be ‘framed’ with the specific lyrics, ‘Donald Duck’s on as the Tonka Truck in the yard. But dog, how the f— is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car? … ‘ cause I feel somewhat responsible for the dumb little blonde girl, that motherf—in ‘ baton twirler that got dumped in the pond, Second murder with no recollection of it,” the document read.
The Secret Service file is under the rapper’s real name, Marshall Mathers.
The documents also noted, “This is not the first time MATHERS made threatening comments towards POTUS and his family. In June 2017, MATHERS freestyled comments that were threatening in nature towards POTUS.”
At the BET Hip Hop Awards that year, Eminem rapped, “That’s an awfully hot coffee pot/ Should I drop it on Donald Trump? Probably not/ But that’s all I got ’til I come up with a solid plot,” according to Rolling Stone.
The Secret Service interview with Eminem was conducted in January 2018, according to the documents.
Most of the comments about the interview were redacted, but it was noted that when agents began to read the lyrics to Eminem, “Mathers was familiar the song and began [to] rap along with the interviewers as the verse was read.”
The documents revealed that the original contact to the Secret Service was made by an unidentified employee of the website TMZ who asked if the Secret Service was “investigating Eminem for his threatening lyrics about First daughter Ivanka Trump.”
The case file shows that after the interview, agents did not recommend the investigation go any further.
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