President Trump said Sunday night that Dan Bongino, a former New York City Police and Secret Service agent, turned right-wing expert and podcaster, would be the next deputy director of the FBI.
Mr. Trump made the announcement on his social media website. He said the newly-established FBI Director Kash Patel appointed Mr. Bungino as the second place in the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of the vice director does not require Senate confirmation, which means two firm Trump loyalists will be effectively installed, within the highest scope of institutions known for their independent traditions.
The FBI Agents Association told its member Mr Patel had privately acknowledged that the next deputy director should be an FBI agent, which exacerbated distrust among the platform and officials, and the news came in about an hour.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
In the past, FBI directors have chosen senior agents with extensive experience, thus essentially operating the bureau’s operations, which is a complex and hard work that requires close cooperation with foreign partners and sensitive investigations.
Mr. Bongino’s choice was a radical and sudden departure from this practice and sparked a huge surveillance and investigation power on how two people who had never served as FBI agents oversee a 38,000-person agency, budget About $11, billion.
The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent a least experienced leader’s wife, usually caused by White House intervention. It will also ensure that the bureau will be run by people who freely peddled misinformation and accept partisan politics.
“My life is about owning libs now,” Bongino said in 2018, also responding to the complaints of the far right people, condemning the so-called deep states.
Mr. Bongino’s advancement came during a time of great turmoil in the agency as the Justice Department has launched a number of senior executives who, in general, have decades of experience and experience running different departments of the bureau.
Interim leaders Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Keane initially refused to accept the Justice Department’s request for a local name to investigate the Capitol attack, which made They are loved internally, and willing, willingness to stand up inside the bureau is considered something of political intervention.
Many hope that the two will stay in Washington to help Mr. Patel run the FBI
In an internal newsletter distributed to agents before Mr. Trump announced the announcement, the association’s head Natalie Bara said she and the group’s vice president at a meeting with Mr. Patel in January Jen Morrow urged his lieutenant “for many compelling reasons, there were 117 years of ships, active special agents, and that’s the case.”
She said Mr Patel agreed.
Mr. Patel had wanted Mr. Bongino to be his agent, a person familiar with the matter said, although it was unclear whether Mr. Trump also pushed Mr. Bongino’s choice.
Mr. Bongino ran for the elected office three times before becoming a right-wing commentator’s popularity.
Mr. Bongino is a former Fox News host who left the network in 2023. It is worth noting that he hosted Mr. Trump in the show in 2021, when the network and Rupert Murdoch’s most media empire – trying to open the page Trump era.
On Fox News in December 2021, Geraldo Rivera called the January 6 incident a “riot” and was “released, incited and inspired” by Mr. Trump. This leads Mr. Bongino to question his loyalty. “The back spear of the president you are going to attend is disgusting,” he said.
His tough style of speaking made him quickly become his star on radio and social media, where he often peddled rampant misinformation. This includes spreading the falsehood of the stolen election in 2020, false claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and permanent mazes and unfounded conspiracy theories involving Democratic conspiracies to monitor Trump’s 2016 Campaign.
In an interview with The New Yorker, then-Fox News host Pete Hegseth and now the Secretary of Defense equated Mr. Bongino with a general like him, who was like him “Serve in information warfare.”
The news raises questions about how the bureau retains its credibility, and the two people at their helm have a history of spreading exaggerated and misleading information.
“I will always support you because you have the support of the American people,” Mr. Patel said in an email to the FBI after confirmation.
Maggie Haberman Contribution report.
