Rapper Eminem was reportedly investigated by the Secret Service over his song lyrics that pertained to the president and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, seeming to confirm a claim the rapper had previously made.
As BuzzFeed News noted, the rapper had seemed to previously imply that he had been visited by the Secret Service on his track “The Ringer,” the lead track on his 2018 album Kamikaze.
“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’”
Per the BuzzFeed News report, at the time, Secret Service would not reveal if they actually interviewed or investigated the rapper, citing policy that they could not comment on whether ongoing investigations existed.
In response, the digital news outlet filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Secret Service, requesting all documents relating to Eminem. As the agency reported Thursday, they received 40 pages worth of documents that seem to indicate that the rapper was, in fact, investigated by the U.S. Secret Service over his Trump claims.
Per the documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, the rapper was investigated over lyrics from Revival, an album he released in 2017. Specifically, the documents state that the Secret Service was particularly concerned with lyrics from his track “Framed.” They alleged he exhibited “inappropriate behavior” using a comment he made toward the president and a “threatening” lyric toward the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
The documents state that a “concerned citizen” reported the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, to the federal agency. The documents reveal that the concerned citizen was actually an employee of TMZ, who emailed the agency to inquire if they were investigating the lyrics from Revival. The email was reportedly sent the same day in December 2017 that the rapper released Revival, his ninth full-length LP.
As BuzzFeed News noted, it seemed as if TMZ had been asking for comment about the song, as it had published a story about the lyrics just hours before the email to the agency was sent. TMZ did not respond to a request to comment from BuzzFeed .
The documents also claim that the song was not the first time that the rapper had made threatening comments toward Trump, citing a 2017 interview he did with Vulture in which he told the magazine that the 45th president made his “blood boil.”
The Secret Service reportedly met with Eminem on January 16, 2018, about a month after it began the process of setting up an interview with the “Real Slim Shady” rapper. At the conclusion, it seemed that the agency did not find a credible threat to either the president or Ivanka Trump, as it decided not to refer the case to a prosecutor.
While the children of presidents are protected by the Secret Service, the president’s daughter, Ivanka, is more than just the first daughter. Since her father has assumed his position in the Oval Office, the younger Trump has served as a senior adviser to her father. According to a previous report from The Inquisitr, it was recently revealed that the president allows his daughter to speak to foreign leaders on phone calls.