Right-wing commentator named FBI deputy director
“My entire life right now is about owning the libs,” Bongino said in 2018. He has also echoed a popular grievance among the far right denouncing the so-called deep state.
Bongino’s ascension comes at a time of enormous upheaval at the agency as the Department of Justice has pushed out some senior executives who, collectively, have decades of experience running the different divisions of the bureau.
FBI director Kash Patel (left) had acknowledged that the next deputy director should be an FBI agent.Credit: Kenny Holston/The New York Times
It is unclear what will happen to the interim leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, who served as the acting director and acting deputy director until Patel’s confirmation. Their initial refusal to accede to the DoJ’s demand for the names of bureau personnel who investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, made them well-liked internally, willing, in the view of many inside the bureau, to stand up to what was perceived as political interference.
Many had hoped the two would remain in Washington to help Patel run the FBI.
In an internal newsletter distributed to agents before Trump’s announcement, the head of the association, Natalie Bara, said that in a meeting in January with Patel, she and the group’s vice president, Jen Morrow, urged that his lieutenant “be an onboard, active special agent, as has been the case for 117 years for many compelling reasons”.
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Patel, she said, agreed.
Patel had wanted Bongino as his deputy, a person familiar with the matter said, though it remained unclear whether Trump had also pushed for Bongino’s selection.
Bongino ran for elected office three times before gaining popularity as a right-wing commentator.
A former Fox News host, Bongino left the network in 2023. Notably, he hosted Trump on his show in 2021, at a time when the network – and much of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire – was trying to turn the page on the Trump era.
On Fox News in December 2021, Geraldo Rivera called the events of January 6 a riot “unleashed, incited and inspired” by Trump, leading Bongino to question his fealty.
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“The backstabbing of the president you’re engaging in is really disgusting,” he said.
His tough-talking style catapulted him to stardom on radio and social media, where he often peddles rampant misinformation. That includes spreading the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen, falsely claiming that masks are ineffective at preventing the spread of the coronavirus and perpetuating labyrinthine and baseless conspiracy theories involving a plot by Democrats to spy on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Pete Hegseth, then a fellow Fox News host and now US Defence Secretary, equated Bongino to a general who, like him, got “to serve in information warfare”.
The news elicited questions about how the bureau would retain its credibility with two men at the helm who have a history of spreading exaggerated and misleading information.
In an email to the FBI after he was confirmed, Patel said: “I will always have your backs, because you have the backs of the American people.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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