FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino to decide on departure within weeks
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Two sources familiar with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s thinking told Fox News he will make a decision about his future at the bureau within the next few weeks.
Sources deny recent reports that Bongino’s office at the FBI is vacant, but say his departure is a possibility in the near future.
A source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital that Bongino has not made any decisions about his future.
BONGINO ANNOUNCED THAT IN HIS FIRST 3 MONTHS AS DEPUTY DIRECTOR, THE FBI ARRESTED 449 CHILD PREDATORS AND SAVED 224 CHILDREN.
FBI Director Kash Patel (left) and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino hold a press conference at the Department of Justice on Thursday, December 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Bongino’s tenure at the FBI has come under criticism in recent weeks, along with FBI director Kash Patel. Earlier this month, a stunning report from an alliance of active-duty and retired FBI personnel showed the bureau was directionless under its new leadership.
But Bongino and Patel opposed the report, arguing for sweeping reforms that they say have yielded major gains in accountability and public safety.
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“When the director and I started moving forward on these reforms, we were waiting for some noise from a small circle of disgruntled former agents who were still loyal to the old Comey-Wray model,” Bongino told Fox News at the time.
“That was never our audience. Our responsibility is to the American people. And under the new leadership team, the bureau is delivering results this country hasn’t seen in decades: tighter accountability, tougher performance standards, billions in savings, and a mission-first culture. That’s how you rebuild trust.”
New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor Miranda Devine he said last week A 115-page internal report from the FBI’s active-duty and retired agents and analysts said Patel and Bongino had been heavily criticized since taking on their own jobs earlier this year.
FBI Director Kash Patel has faced criticism for his tenure at the bureau. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Alliance criticizes Patel for being ‘in over his head’ and Bongino According to The New York Post, he is “clown-like.”
The 115-page assessment was written in the style of an FBI intelligence product and analyzed reports from 24 people, the publication said. FBI Sources and sub-sources describing their experiences within the office.
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Devine said Patel was described as inexperienced by multiple inside sources, with one source saying Patel “neither has the breadth of experience nor the talent required for an FBI director to succeed.”
Patel told Fox News Digital that the FBI “operated exactly as the country expected.”
Fox News’ Ashely Carnahan contributed to this report.
