James Comey Recalls Singing Beyoncé Song During 2016 FBI ‘Sandcastles’ Briefing
Former FBI Director James Comey shared a story Sunday recalling an unusual moment from his tenure at the helm of the bureau, describing how a reference to a Beyoncé song during a 2016 FBI briefing was met with silence from his colleagues in the room.
Comey said in a video posted on his Substack on Sunday:
As director of the FBI, I was constantly informed about serious things, including operations or cases that always seemed to have these strange code names that no one could explain the origin of, at least not to the director. And so names became a bit of an obsession of mine.
One morning I was sitting at the head of a large table in a crowded room to be briefed on a particular job. The presenter began by saying that the operation was codenamed “Sandcastles.”
Now, it was 2016, and you may know that Beyoncé’s album Lemonade was released with a track called “Sandcastles”. So I said, “Oh, like the Beyoncé song.” Blank looks around the FBI conference room. So I did the natural thing. I think I sang: “We rebuild the sandcastles that were washed away.” » No, nothing – dead silence. “Whatever,” I said, “keep going.” It wasn’t until I got home and told the story to my family that I got the reaction I expected. When I write, I listen to classical or jazz because, in a way I can’t explain, music releases something. It frees me.
Comey led the FBI from 2013 until his firing in 2017 during the first administration of President Donald Trump. His remarks come months after a federal judge rejected a 2025 indictment charging him with making false statements and obstruction of justice related to his 2020 Senate testimony, a decision the Justice Department has indicated it will appeal.
In May 2025, Comey confronted negative reaction after posting a photo on Instagram showing shells arranged in the numbers “86 47”. As Breitbart News reported at the time, the image showed a shell formation appearing as “86 47,” with “86” possibly meaning “eliminate” and “47” potentially meaning Trump. Trump had been the target of two failed assassination attempts in 2024 while running for president against former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Comey later deleted the post and remarked in a follow-up statement: “I posted a photo earlier of some shells I saw today during a walk on the beach, and I assumed it was a political message. I didn’t realize that some people associated these numbers with violence…I oppose any form of violence, so I deleted that post.”
Following public backlash, comments on Comey’s Instagram account were disabled.
