Secret Service Visits Seattle Rapper Who Made Trump Effigy

SEATTLE, WA - The Secret Service visited a Seattle rapper who made a music video featuring an effigy of Donald Trump, according to the Seattle Times. And now the rapper, Chino'o Capo Gaddafi, says he has to censor the music video before releasing it.

The rap group Malitia MaliMob shot the video for the song "Dum Dum" in South Seattle in late December. The group left the effigy of Trump hanging from a utility pole near Rainier Avenue South and South Graham Street.

In a Jan. 30 Facebook post, the rapper, whose real name is Guled Diriye, said that federal agents were at his door. According to the Times, two officials showed up at Diriye's mother's Kent home and asked to look around. They identified themselves as "special agents" and left a handwritten note with a phone number. The Secret Service did not return calls from a Seattle Times reporter.

"I’m afraid for my life right now," Diriye wrote on Facebook Tuesday. "I got the FBI and federal agents knocking on my door for making music and exercise my right of freedom of speech."

Diriye came to the U.S. with his mother at age 7, fleeing civil-war torn Somalia. He is a U.S. citizen.

Diriye sought legal advice after the visit from the federal officials. He said in a video released Wednesday that he has to censor images in the "Dum Dum" video that imply a threat against the president, but still plans to release it.

"I guess freedom of speech isn't for everyone," he says in the video.

UPDATE: Diriye said Friday afternoon he met with his attorney and the Secret Service and he has been cleared to release a censored version of the video.

Photos by Neal McNamara/Patch