FBI Deputy Director Bongino says he will step down next month

(Patria) - FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino will step down from his position next month, he said on Wednesday, ending a brief and sometimes turbulent tenure as the second-highest official at the FBI.

Bongino announced the decision on social media several hours after President Donald Trump said he thought Bongino wanted to "return to his show." Before joining the FBI, he hosted a prominent right-wing podcast, Reuters reports.

"Dan did a great job. I think he wants to return to his show," Trump said.

Bongino, a former New York police officer, Secret Service agent and right-wing podcaster, was an unusual choice for the second most important position at the FBI, which has historically been filled by professional agents who rose through the ranks.

He was appointed as deputy despite objections from the FBI Agents Association, a group representing 14,000 mostly current agents, and despite earlier assurances from FBI Director Kash Patel that he would appoint a professional agent.
"I want to thank President Trump, Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose," Bongino wrote in a post on social media platform X, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.

Several people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Bongino's belongings in his office were already packed in boxes, although another person said he was working at FBI headquarters on Wednesday.

Promoted conspiracies

As a podcaster, Bongino promoted a number of conspiracy theories that came back to haunt him after he got the position, with notable examples relating to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters, as well as the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bongino claimed that the planting of bombs at the offices of the Democratic and Republican National Committees ahead of the January 6 attack was an "inside job" by the FBI. He retracted that claim after the FBI arrested a suspect in December in the five-year-old case, and in a later interview with Fox News said he was paid to express controversial opinions.

Bongino's tenure at the FBI has been in question since July, when questions related to Epstein culminated.

That month, the Department of Justice and FBI leadership jointly issued a memorandum backing away from a promise to release investigative files on Epstein and dismissing various long-standing conspiracy theories that Bongino had promoted on his podcast.

The memorandum angered many Trump followers who adhered to conspiracy theories about Epstein and rejected the Department of Justice's findings that there was no incriminating "client list" to release and that Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell.