Dan Bongino said he will leave his position as FBI deputy director in January.
In a post on X, he thanked President Donald Trump, the FBI director and the attorney general for “the opportunity to serve with purpose.”
This comes after President Trump said Wednesday morning that the former podcast host “did a great job” during his time in office and that he “would like to return to his show.”
Appointed by President Trump in February, Bongino was previously a New York City police officer and U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to protect Barack Obama. In recent years, he has built a large following through podcasts and other media appearances.
Bongino, a staunch Trump ally, was previously considered a surprise choice for the role by a career agent. Because he had no prior experience with the agency.
The FBI Agents Association, which represents about 14,000 current and former agents, opposed his appointment.
Announcing his decision in a social media post on Wednesday, he said: “I will be leaving my position at the FBI in January. I am grateful to President Trump, AG (Pam) Bondi, and Director (Kash) Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose.”
“Most importantly, I want to thank you, the American people, for the privilege of serving you. God bless America and all who defend it.”
Before joining the agency, Bongino echoed disinformation and conspiracy theories about Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 pipe bomb investigation.
Bongino previously called the pipe bomb incident an “inside job.” He has pushed ahead with the investigation, which has been a priority for the FBI since taking office, but Attorney General Bondi said the investigation has “slowed down.”
Earlier this month, nearly six years after pipe bombs were discovered outside the national headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties, a man with no ties to the government was arrested.
“He has served as the people’s voice for transparency and achieved important breakthroughs in long-unsolved cases, such as the pipe bomb investigation,” FBI Director Patel said in a social media post Wednesday praising Bongino’s tenure.
“He not only accomplished his mission, he far exceeded it,” Patel wrote.
Bongino also appeared to change his mind about the death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after becoming leader of the FBI.
As a commentator, he has questioned whether Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial. Then, in May, “I saw the whole file. He committed suicide.”
Last July, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI released a memo saying that Epstein had killed himself and that he had no “client list.”
The memo disappointed many Trump supporters who supported the Epstein conspiracy theory and rejected the Justice Department’s findings.
The note led to a contentious meeting between him and Bondi, according to the BBC’s media partner CBS News.
Bondi, who oversees the FBI, wrote in a short article on
