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Bongino says he planted fake details to catch ‘snakes’ in FBI

Dan Bongino, former deputy director of the FBI, said in a podcast released Tuesday that he occasionally spreads false information to identify “snakes” within the agency he believed were leaking details to the media.

Bongino told Sean Hannity: Fox News host’s podcast “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” He said that when he first started working at the agency, he encountered two different groups, one of which he called the “good FBI,” made up of agents who investigated crimes against children and white-collar crimes.

“And then there was another FBI, which unfortunately was full of snakes, so snakes are nice,” he told Hannity. “And here’s the problem, Sean. It wasn’t always obvious which FBI they were in.”

He said it took him and FBI Director Kash Patel some time to figure out whether individual agents were “part of the good FBI or the bad FBI,” and that they sometimes relied on outside sources for help.

“Sometimes they get it wrong, too,” Bongino said. “They said, ‘Oh, you can trust John Smith’ a couple of times, right? And you trust John Smith, and then a week later you see there’s a leak in the media and you’re like, ‘I’m sure it’s from John Smith.'”

Bongino said he decided to “deal with people” next, offering “harmless” details about his whereabouts and a plan to expose alleged leakers he could confront if the story made headlines later.

“So it was like we were going to play this; we had to play this little game,” he said.

The FBI’s operation was routinely criticized under Patel’s leadership. A new profile in The Atlantic It details his alleged drinking habit, unexplained absences, and paranoia about losing his job. In response, Patel sued the magazine for defamation.

Bongino, who left the office in January due to a dispute with former Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein files, also faced his share of criticism during his nearly one-year service.

He and Patel were indicted by active-duty and retired FBI agents and analysts. 115 page report He was released in December for “spending too much time on social media and public relations.” A source also described Bongino as “clown-like” in the report.

About a month after leaving the FBI, Bongino returned to the public spotlight with the relaunch of his daily two-hour talk show on the video platform Rumble. He also returned as a Fox News contributor, making his first appearance on the network on Hannity’s show.

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