Current and former FBI officials expressed shock and dismay Monday over the news that President Donald Trump had selected a right-wing podcaster and ardent FBI critic to be the bureau’s deputy director, even as the man picked for the job said he was ready to put partisanship aside.
On his podcast, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino — who once called the FBI “irredeemably corrupt”— thanked the president for the appointment and suggested that he was prepared to step out of his role as a MAGA warrior. But even as he did so, he repeated the baseless charge that the Justice Department had been “weaponized,” a claim he has frequently brandished to criticize the agency he will now help lead.
“I get it if you are a political opponent of mine that has been involved with proudly celebrating a weaponized justice system, how you don’t understand how a guy like me who discusses partisan content in an opinion show and go and do (an) unquestionably nonpartisan job,” Bongino, also a former Fox News host, said. “I’m going to ask you a simple question: Have you seen what I did before I came here?”
He continued: “I’m committed to service. People play different roles in their lives. People are dads, people are soccer coaches. People are cops and military officers and military enlisted people. People are carpenters, people are plumbers. We play different roles in our life, and each one requires a different skill set.”
Bongino’s conciliatory words did little to reassure skeptics within the FBI, who noted that, in the bureau’s 117-year history, the deputy director has always been a career FBI agent with deep knowledge of how the bureau functions — and not a political appointee selected by the president.
Neither FBI Director Kash Patel nor Bongino have ever worked at the FBI.
In fact, the FBI Agents Association said in a memo to the workforce that Patel had privately committed to installing an agent as his second in command.
The group did not comment Monday, and the FBI declined to comment.
Some FBI officials consider the deputy director job more important than the director’s role, because the deputy oversees operations, supervises the heads of field offices and handles some of the most sensitive intelligence in the federal government.
“This is beyond problematic,” said Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI official who retired in 2023. “Any hope that Kash could be steered by having experienced leaders around him is out the window. We now have two conspiracy theorists and election deniers running our premier law enforcement and intelligence agency.”
Some current FBI employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to reporters, were even more blunt. They said they feared Bongino’s appointment spelled the end of an independent FBI and put the bureau’s fearsome investigative and intelligence capabilities in the hands of political actors with radical agendas.
“I didn’t sleep and I want to pack my desk today,” one said.
Another FBI official said he viewed the hiring of Bongino as akin to bringing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones or Oath Keepers leader Stuart Rhodes.
Like those two men, Bongino has become known for both his loyalty to Trump and for trafficking in bizarre and unproven allegations about the FBI and the Capitol riot.
He once argued that every FBI agent and supervisor who had anything to do with the 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound — which was conducted pursuant to a lawful search warrant — be fired. And he recently claimed without evidence that the FBI knows who placed pipe bombs outside the RNC and DNC the day before the Jan. 6 attack, even though the FBI says it has not identified any suspects and recently asked the public for help.
“Will the deputy director get a security clearance? FBI background checks? Does it matter that he supported the Oath Keepers?” one retired FBI agent said, referring to the far-right group that Rhodes founded. “I doubt it because the director supported Jan. 6th.”
The retired agent spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted by online threats.
Despite the focus on Bongino, many FBI employees tried to keep their heads down and go on with their jobs Monday, current and former officials said.
Bongino worked for two years for the New York Police Department before joining the Secret Service in 1999, where he served for 12 years. He ran unsuccessfully three times as a Republican candidate for office before striking out to build what has become a media empire, including one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S.
On Monday, Bongino sought to strike an inspiring tone.
“We’re going to re-establish faith in this institution, the good people there, doing their job, hitting the streets, developing sources,” he said. “We’ll have your back. … The FBI belongs to the American people. Doesn’t belong to me, doesn’t belong to anyone else but the American people. But this is the honor of a lifetime, and it’s a serious mission. I plan on implementing that vision.”
