Bongino to work alongside ‘co-deputy director’ of FBI after sparring with administration over release of Epstein files
The FBI has moved to appoint Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as its new “co-deputy director,” meaning its current deputy, Dan Bongino, will be expected to share his duties in the role in the future.
The appointment was made by Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel and comes after Bongino, 50, a former Secret Service agent and podcaster, reportedly clashed with Bondi over the administration’s failure to release the Jeffrey Epstein files last month.
“I am proud to announce I have accepted the role of Co-Deputy Director of the FBI,” Bailey wrote in a brief post on X. “I extend my thanks to President Donald Trump and AG Bondi for the opportunity to serve in the mission to Make America Safe Again. I will protect America and uphold the Constitution.”
Bongino responded to a journalist’s post about the appointment by writing simply, “Welcome,” accompanied by three Stars and Stripes emojis.
Explaining the decision, Patel told The Daily Beast that the FBI “will always bring the greatest talent this country has to offer in order to accomplish the goals set forth when an overwhelming majority of American people elected President Donald J Trump again.
“Andrew Bailey will be an integral part of this important mission, and I look forward to the continued fight to save America together.”
An Iraq War veteran and a long-time champion of Trump, Bailey, 44, has been Missouri’s AG since 2023 and has developed a reputation as a hard-line conservative, known for attempting to prevent the release of prisoners whose convictions have been overturned, opposing gender-affirming care and restricting access to abortion in his state.
The Epstein case caused controversy in early July after the FBI and Justice Department put out a statement saying that the late pedophile and sex trafficker left behind no “client list” among his possessions and died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in August 2019.
The assessment started a civil war among Trump’s MAGA movement, many of whose members had long been encouraged to suspect foul play in Epstein’s death and had hoped to see influential people brought to justice over their alleged involvement in the disgraced financier’s crimes.
The controversy raged for more than a month, with the president himself repeatedly urged to release all federal files on Epstein and to explain his past friendship with the disgraced financier, a cause of apparent frustration to him.
Trump himself was not accused of wrongdoing, however, and moved to sue The Wall Street Journal for alleging that he once sent Epstein a “bawdy” doodle to mark his birthday.
Even before the contested verdict on Epstein was published, Patel and Bongino, both of whom had stoked conspiracy theories on conservative media before joining the Trump administration, had drawn fire for attempting to pour cold water on the case during a May interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
Challenged by Bartiromo on their newfound conviction that Epstein did indeed take his own life, Bongino responded: “I’m not asking you to believe me, or not. I’m telling you what exists, and what doesn’t. If new evidence surfaces, I’m happy to re-evaluate.”
His and Patel’s comments saw them labelled “deep state traitors” and attacked by right-wing media darlings like Glenn Beck and Alex Jones.
Then, late last month, Bongino posted a cryptic message on X that read: “During my tenure here as the Deputy Director of the FBI, I have repeatedly relayed to you that things are happening that might not be immediately visible, but they are happening.
“The Director and I are committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations. It is a priority for us. But what I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.
“We are going to conduct these righteous and proper investigations by the book and by the law. We are going to get the answers WE ALL DESERVE. As with any investigation, I cannot predict where it will land, but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not ‘my truth,’ or ‘your truth,’ but THE TRUTH.”
The president’s moves this month to federalize the policing of Washington, D.C., and seek a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appear to have finally driven Epstein from the headlines for now. However, the strength of feeling surrounding the subject has by no means dissipated.
