FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has mentioned he plans to step down from his position early subsequent yr, MS NOW reported Wednesday, citing eight individuals briefed on his account.
Bongino, the No. 2 official on the FBI underneath Director Kash Patel, additionally informed his confidants that he won’t be returning to the bureau’s headquarters this month, these individuals mentioned.
He has thought of asserting his departure on Friday, 4 individuals informed MS NOW.
Bongino, requested by MS NOW about his plans, declined to verify or deny reviews of his coming departure, however added, “Print no matter you would like. Nobody believes you anyway. Thanks.”
The FBI declined CNBC’s request for touch upon the report.
Bongino, a former police officer and Secret Service agent, had been chosen by President Donald Trump for the high-profile legislation enforcement job regardless of him having no prior FBI expertise.
A fixture in conservative media, Bongino’s public dialogue of a number of conspiracy theories resurfaced after he joined the federal government.
As a personal citizen, Bongino had reportedly recommended that the planting of pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, was an “inside job.”
Earlier this month, Bongino took a victory lap after federal brokers, after an almost five-year search, arrested and charged Brian Cole Jr. with setting these units.
When requested by Fox Information’ Sean Hannity about how his previous feedback squared together with his previous claims concerning the pipe bombs, Bongino mentioned he had been “paid previously” for his opinions, “and someday I can be again in that house.”
“That is not what I am paid for now. I am paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on information,” he mentioned.
Bongino had additionally beforehand questioned official accounts of the circumstances surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s loss of life. The rich financier and infamous intercourse offender hanged himself whereas in jail in 2019.
As an FBI official, Bongino mentioned there was no query that Epstein died by suicide.
“I’ve reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. There isn’t any proof within the case file indicating in any other case,” he wrote on X in Might.
In July, the FBI launched a memo concluding that Epstein died by suicide and that his rumored “shopper checklist” didn’t exist.
That memo sparked a backlash amongst members of Trump’s MAGA motion, the place conspiracy theories about Epstein have proliferated for years. Quickly after, Bongino and Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi angrily confronted one another on the White Home in accordance with a The New York Instances report.
Friday, the day Bongino is reportedly contemplating asserting his departure, can also be the deadline for the Trump administration to adjust to a bipartisan legislation ordering the discharge of the federal government’s recordsdata on its Epstein investigations.
