THE HILL on Dan Bongino's Sudden Resignation

From Brett Samuels and Rebecca Beitsch's 12-17-25 THE HILL article entitled "Trump on Bongino Leaving FBI: ‘I Think He Wants to Go Back to His Show’":

Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday he will step down from his role at the bureau in January, departing less than a year after he took the job [...].

Before joining the bureau, Bongino used his platform [as the host of a conservative radio show and podcast] to praise Trump and echo conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bongino has reportedly had misgivings about the job since at least July, when he clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Epstein files. Bongino reportedly weighed quitting at the time amid frustration with the lack of transparency in the case.

Talk of Bongino’s exit picked up again in August when then-Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was brought into the FBI to serve as co-deputy director.

A longtime critic of the FBI during his years as a commentator, Bongino also at turns seemed deflated by information he learned once inside the bureau.

As deputy director, he backed away from some conspiracy theories he previously pushed, including that Epstein didn’t kill himself.

“The evidence we have in our files clearly indicates that it was, in fact, a suicide,” Bongino said in June.

“There’s nothing there in the file at all that indicates anything other than in fact a suicide.”

And in previous musings, he had suggested the FBI’s inability to catch the suspect who planted pipe bombs in D.C. was due to a “massive cover-up” that could be concealing an “inside job.”

Bongino backtracked while indicating “one day” he could go back to his role as commentator.

“Listen I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions,” Bongino said during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity earlier this month. “That’s clear. And one day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.