FBI deputy director Dan Bongino to step down next year: Report

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has reportedly told confidants that he plans to step down from his role early next year, according to MS NOW. Bongino is the bureau’s second-highest command only after Director Kash Patel. He has indicated that he will not be returning to the FBI headquarters this month.Sources told MS NOW that Bongino has considered formally announcing his departure on Friday. When asked about the reports, Bongino declined to confirm or deny them, saying, “Print whatever you’d like. No one believes you anyway. Thanks.” The FBI declined to comment on the report.Bongino is a former police officer and Secret Service agent. He was appointed to the FBI position by US President Donald Trump himself. Bongino had no prior experience within the bureau. His appointment was not taken well due to his role in conservative media and past commentary on conspiracy theories, including the January 6 pipe bomb attempt and the death of Jeffrey Epstein.Before joining the FBI, Bongino suggested that the pipe bombs planted in Washington on the eve of the Capitol riot were an “inside job.” And when Brian Cole Jr. was arrested and charged with planting the devices earlier this month, Bongino showed a different stance on Fox News and said that as a deputy director of the FBI, the investigation will be based on facrs on facts. He added: “That’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director.”Bongino previously questioned official accounts of Jeffrey Epstein’s death of it being a suicide as a conspiracy theory. After becoming an FBI official, he confirmed that Epstein, the convicted sex offender and pedophile, had hanged himself in 2019. “I have reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. There’s no evidence in the case file indicating otherwise,” Bongino said on X in May.The FBI memo released in July affirmed Epstein’s suicide and denied the existence of the rumored “client list,” drawing backlash from some members of the MAGA movement. Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly confronted each other at the White House over the matter.The reported timing of Bongino’s potential announcement coincides with the Friday deadline for the Trump administration to comply with a bipartisan law requiring the release of government files related to the Epstein investigations.