James Comey once ran the FBI, the most powerful federal law enforcement agency in the United States. That fact alone makes his latest video message feel like something out of a political satire, except unfortunately it is real life.
On Sunday, the former FBI director posted a video to his Substack account reminiscing about his time leading the bureau. Instead of discussing counterintelligence operations, national security threats, or the responsibilities of running an agency with more than 30,000 employees, Comey decided to tell a story about singing a Beyoncé song during an FBI briefing.
According to Comey, the moment happened during what was supposed to be a serious operational meeting. “The briefer started by saying the operation was codenamed Sandcastles,” Comey said in the video.
That apparently triggered a musical memory. “So I said, ‘Oh, like the Beyoncé song.’ Blank stares all around the FBI conference room. So I did the natural thing, I sang,” Comey explained.
He then proceeded to demonstrate the moment by actually singing part of the song in the video.
The mental image is something else. A room full of federal agents expecting a high level operational briefing, and the director of the FBI suddenly breaking into a Beyoncé reference. If that sounds like something you would expect from a late night comedy sketch, you are not alone.
Of course, the strange story is only the latest entry in the long list of bizarre episodes surrounding Comey since leaving the bureau.
Back in September, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted the former FBI director on two counts, false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The charges stemmed from Comey’s testimony to Senate investigators in September 2020 about whether he authorized leaks to the media.
Newly released emails from November 2016 suggested Comey was guiding his longtime associate Daniel Richman, who served as a media intermediary. Prosecutors argued the communications showed Comey had authorized leaks about his interactions with President Trump.
The case ultimately collapsed after a federal judge dismissed it on Appointments Clause grounds. That technical ruling ended the prosecution, though it left the underlying controversy very much unresolved.
Comey also managed to stir a national controversy last year with a cryptic social media post that many people interpreted as threatening President Trump. The former FBI director posted a photograph of seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47.”
For anyone even loosely familiar with political slang, the meaning was not exactly subtle. “86” is often used as shorthand for getting rid of someone, while “47” would refer to President Trump as the 47th president.
Comey later deleted the post and claimed he did not understand the violent interpretation. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he wrote.
That explanation raised more than a few eyebrows. After all, this is the same person who once oversaw federal investigations into organized crime, terrorism, and political threats.
Which brings things back to the Beyoncé story.
When people hear that the former director of the FBI once broke into song during an operational briefing, it does not exactly inspire confidence in the judgment that was guiding the bureau during some of the most politically volatile years in modern American history. For an agency tasked with protecting national security, karaoke hour during a briefing probably was not part of the job description.
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