Dan Bongino plans to step down as FBI deputy director in January

By Holmes Lybrand, Evan Perez, Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — Deputy FBI director Dan Bongino is stepping down soon from the job after eight months marked by clashes with his boss, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and fighting off the conspiracies he once fueled.

President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he thought Bongino wanted to go back to his podcast. Soon after, Bongino posted on X that he’d leave his post in January.

“I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January. I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose. Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you,” Bongino wrote. “God bless America, and all those who defend Her.”

Before the president’s remark Wednesday, Bongino was seen at a gingerbread house decorating contest at FBI headquarters.

“Oh, Dan, Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show,” Trump told reporters earlier at Joint Base Andrews, referring to Bongino’s radio show.

Inside the White House and FBI, it has long been believed that Bongino would depart after a year. In recent days, Andrew Bailey, the co-deputy director, has taken over some of the meetings that Bongino was expected to handle.

Bongino has complained both publicly and privately about the tedious nature of the job and the toll it took on his personal life.

Some FBI officials believed Bongino would depart the agency after the arrest of a suspect in the 2021 pipe bomb case earlier this month. Bongino took a leading role in the case, which he was fixated on before joining the agency, dedicating many of his shows to conspiracy theories that claimed the planting of pipe bombs near Republicans and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of January 6, 2021, was an inside job.

But in the days after the charges were brought, Bongino told officials he had not made up his mind and might stay through the start of the new year. Some officials inside the FBI were surprised by the President’s announcement Thursday.

The FBI declined to comment on Trump’s comment about Bongino.

A former Secret Service agent who once protected President Barack Obama, Bongino came to the job after a lucrative podcasting career where he vocally supported Trump.

It was a sharp turn for a job that in recent decades has been held by a career agent, not a partisan appointee. The old career — which Bongino had vowed to return to — ended up being a thorn in the deputy director’s side as he tried to reshape the agency.

Earlier this year, Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel expressed frustrations to top Trump officials about how Bondi and the Justice Department handled the aborted release of documents related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Bongino took it a step further and threatened to leave the agency after officials reneged on promises to release the documents.

Like Patel, Bongino favored releasing more documents. In a meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Bongino implied that he couldn’t serve in the position as long as Bondi was still leading the department. He skipped work after the clash, leaving his bosses guessing whether he would return.

A month after his threats, Patel announced Bongino would be joined in the position of deputy director by Bailey, who was then Missouri’s Attorney General.

But Bongino continued in the agency, often touting the work of the FBI on social media despite a deluge of criticism from some on the right — including former agents — who lamented that Bongino wasn’t being forthright about the Epstein files and, in recent weeks, the investigation into the DC Pipe bomber.

Conspiracy theories, including those around the Epstein files, however, were perpetuated by Bongino himself before joining the FBI. On his podcast in May 2024, Bongino lamented, “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?”

“What do Clinton, Obama officials, big money leftists, a former prime minister of Israel — why do they want to make this Jeffrey Epstein story go away so bad?” Bongino asked.

A year later, Bongino told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview that his views had evolved, and he acknowledged frustration at the backlash from right-wing media.

“I’m not paid for my opinions anymore,” he said. “I work for the taxpayer. I’m paid (based) on evidence.”

The headaches for Bongino would not stop there.

On his 51st birthday in early December, Bongino went back on Hannity’s program to tout a huge win: Law enforcement officials arrested and charged a 30-year-old Virginia man with planting the two pipe bombs found outside the Republican and Democratic national committee offices in Washington, DC.

Bongino had reasons to celebrate. The case had turned cold after FBI agents tried for years to track down the person who had placed the bombs — captured only on grainy security footage that day, donning a grey hoodie and medical mask.

It was a case Bongino promised to reignite the investigation with a dogged, no holds bars approach. But the celebration was short lived.

“You put a post on X right after this happened and you said there’s a massive cover-up,” Hannity said during Bongino’s victory-lap interview, adding that Bongino had stated previously that the pipe bomber was either a “connected anti-Trump insider or an inside job.”

The deputy director repeated his answer from the summer.

“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions,” he said. “That’s clear. And one day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

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