Kathy Griffin: 'I'm exonerated' in mock Trump head photo inquiry

Kathy Griffin says she's been "completely exonerated" in the Secret Service investigation of whether she posed a threat by posing for a photo holding a fake, blood-dripping decapitated head of President Trump. 

In a tweet she posted Friday afternoon, Griffin said she is no longer under "federal investigation."

"The case is closed, I have been completely exonerated. Finally," she said. 

The Secret Service, which routinely checks out possible threats against presidents, rarely comments on its investigations; it did not immediately confirm Griffin's tweet. Nor did a publicist for Griffin or her lawyer, Lisa Bloom. 

In her tweet, besides declaring she had been cleared, Griffin seemed just as focused on pressing the Associated Press to "clarify" Friday's edition of its weekly feature — "fake news" that didn't happen — in which the wire service repeated false reports circulating on the internet that Griffin had been arrested and faced jail time.

All of this stems from a clumsy "art" project gone horribly wrong. At the end of May, Griffin was overwhelmed by a bipartisan firestorm of criticism and retribution after a video of a photo shoot with edgy photographer Tyler Shields was posted on YouTube showing Griffin posing with a mock severed head that looked like Trump.

It was meant to be a parody of Trump's infamous "blood-coming-out-of-her-whatever" comments that he uttered about a female anchor after a presidential debate in August.

At first defensive, calling herself an "artist," Griffin was soon apologizing abjectly online, conceding she went "way too far."

But it was too late and not enough. She lost several comedy gigs. Trump tweeted she should be "ashamed of herself;" first lady Melania Trump questioned her mental health. CNN fired her from her annual gig co-hosting its New Year's Eve broadcast with Anderson Cooper, her longtime pal, who declined to back her. (They have since reconciled.)

At a press conference a few days later, she was by turns defiant and contrite, and especially tearful about Cooper's public scolding of her stunt. She also declared that Trump "broke me."

But she was as mum as the Secret Service typically is during its investigations, declining to confirm reports that she had been interviewed in the case.

Now she says it's all over.