Dan Bongino, a former conservative podcaster who turned the No. 2 official on the FBI within the Trump administration, introduced Wednesday that he’s leaving the bureau subsequent month.
“I shall be leaving my place with the FBI in January. I wish to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the chance to serve with function. Most significantly, I wish to thanks, my fellow Individuals, for the privilege to serve you,” he wrote on X.
President Donald Trump appeared to point in remarks to reporters earlier Wednesday that Bongino can be stepping down.
“Dan did a fantastic job. I feel he needs to return to his present,” Trump stated.
Trump tapped Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and New York Metropolis police officer, for the put up in February.
Whereas Trump’s first time period in workplace was marked by a document quantity of turnover on the highest echelons of presidency, the primary yr of his second time period has been comparatively secure at these ranges, regardless of mass layoffs, buyouts and firings amongst rank-and-file authorities employees. Mike Waltz, who began off the time period as Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, was later named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after his involvement in what turned generally known as Signalgate.
NBC Information beforehand reported that Bongino thought of resigning in July after the FBI and the Justice Division stated in a joint memo that that they had accomplished an “exhaustive” assessment of investigative recordsdata referring to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and that no different individuals can be charged within the case and the companies wouldn’t be releasing any extra info.
Sources instructed NBC Information on the time that Bongino received right into a heated argument with Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi after the discharge of the memo, which had sparked outrage from some Trump supporters.
Earlier than he joined the administration, Bongino hosted a podcast on which he alleged there had been a large cover-up involving the Epstein recordsdata.
Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche pushed again in opposition to experiences on the time that Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel had been upset in regards to the memo, writing on X, “All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions acknowledged within the memo. The suggestion by anybody that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ management on this memo’s composition and launch is patently false.”
Bongino didn’t return to work for at the least in the future after the argument with Bondi, however he in the end stayed.
The White Home introduced in August that Andrew Bailey, then the Missouri legal professional basic, was being introduced in as “co-deputy director” of the FBI.
Bondi credited Bongino this month for his work in serving to establish and produce prices in opposition to a suspect within the long-stalled investigation into pipe bombs that have been discovered close to the Democratic and Republican nationwide committees’ headquarters on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, the day a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“This case languished. It sat there for 4 years, amassing mud. Nobody did something to unravel this, and proper when Kash Patel and Dan Bongino got here in, Dan stated to me, Dan stated to all of us, ‘I’m going to unravel this case,’” Bondi instructed “Fox & Pals.” “He put a brand new staff on it” they usually solved the case, she stated, calling it “nice police work.”
The suspect, Brian Cole Jr., has pleaded not responsible.
NBC Information first reported that Cole instructed FBI brokers that he believed in the kind of 2020 election conspiracy theories Trump promoted within the lead-up to the Jan. 6 assault.
Bongino stated on the day Cole was charged that he had been decided to trace down the particular person accountable.
“You’re not going to stroll into our capital metropolis, put down two explosive gadgets and stroll off within the sundown,” Bongino stated. “Not going to occur — we have been going to trace this particular person to the top of the Earth. There was no approach he was getting away.”
Contained in the FBI, some considered Bongino as obsessive about the pipe bomb case, demanding a briefing as quickly as he joined the bureau, an account Bongino confirmed this month in an interview with Sean Hannity.
“My first assembly,” Bongino instructed Hannity, “I stated once I get in there, ‘I need a full temporary on this pipe bomber case on day one.’”
Bongino had claimed, in a 2024 episode of his podcast, that the pipe bomb was an “inside job” to cease Trump.
“This was a setup. I’ve zero doubt,” he stated final yr.
Bongino appeared to distance himself from these remarks within the Hannity interview.
“Hear, I used to be paid up to now, Sean, for my opinions,” Bongino stated. “And in the future, I’ll be again in that area. However that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on details.”
