FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino to step down in January : NPR

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino stated Wednesday he plans to step down from the bureau in January.

In an announcement posted on X, Bongino thanked President Trump, Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel “for the chance to serve with objective.”

Bongino was an uncommon decide for the No. 2 submit on the FBI, a vital job overseeing the bureau’s day-to-day affairs historically held by a profession agent. Neither Bongino nor his boss, Patel, had any earlier expertise on the FBI.

Bongino did have earlier legislation enforcement expertise, as a police officer and later as a Secret Service agent, in addition to a protracted historical past of vocal assist for Trump.

Bongino made his identify over the previous decade as a pro-Trump, far-right podcaster who pushed conspiracy theories, together with some involving the FBI. He had been vital of the bureau, embracing the narrative that it had been “weaponized” in opposition to conservatives and even calling its brokers “thugs.”

His tenure on the bureau was at instances tumultuous, together with a conflict with Justice Division management over the administration’s dealing with of the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata.

But it surely additionally concerned the arrest earlier this month of the person authorities say is accountable for putting two pipe bombs close to the Democratic and Republican committee headquarters, hours earlier than the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In an uncommon association, Bongino has had a co-deputy director since this summer time when the Trump administration tapped Andrew Bailey, a former lawyer basic of Missouri, to serve alongside Bongino within the No. 2 job.

President Trump praised Bongino in short remarks to reporters earlier than he introduced he was stepping down.”Dan did an important job,” Trump stated. “I believe he desires to return to his present.”