WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will leave the bureau next month, ending a short and turbulent tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of Jeffrey Epstein's files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with the inflammatory statements he made in his previous role as a popular podcast host.
The expected departure would be one of the Trump administration's most high-profile departures. This comes amid criticism from FBI leadership over Director Kash Patel's use of government aircraft for personal purposes and social media posts about active investigations.
Bongino announced his planned departure in a post on X, saying he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not specify when exactly he would leave in January or provide details about his plans for the future.
President Donald Trump said earlier Wednesday when asked about Bongino's fate: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to get back on his show.”
Bongino has always been an unconventional candidate for the FBI's No. 2 job, a position that historically involved overseeing the bureau's day-to-day operations and was typically held by a career agent. Although he had previously worked as an NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, neither he nor Patel had any FBI experience before being selected for their job.
However, Bongino was appointed to the position in March by Trump after years as a conservative podcast host, where he used his platform to repeatedly criticize FBI leadership and promote conspiracy theories related to the Epstein sex trafficking case and pipe bombs discovered in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Once in that position, Bongino struggled to appease elements of Trump's base who expected him to quickly implement the FBI reform he claimed was needed and reveal the truth he said the federal government had hidden.
In the Epstein case, for example, he previously challenged an official ruling that the wealthy financier committed suicide in a New York prison shortly after his 2019 arrest. But once at the FBI, he told Fox News, “I saw the whole thing. He committed suicide.”
Bongino separately suggested last year that pipe bombs planted ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were an “inside job” and part of a “massive cover-up.” But after the FBI arrested a 30-year-old Virginia man with no apparent connection to the federal government earlier this month, Bongino came under pressure over his previous comments.
“I used to get paid for my opinion,” Bongino told Fox News. “One day I will return to this space, but that's not what I'm paid for right now. I'm paid to be your deputy director and we base investigations on facts.”
