Dan Bongino is new FBI Deputy Director
Dan Bongino has been named Deputy Director of the FBI, and the Hill coverage I just linked has an unintentionally humorous lede:
President Trump’s selection of Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director adds another conservative firebrand to the top of the agency, fueling concerns from Democrats the bureau will be politicized.
Ha ha – that’s a good one, Hill, a real knee-slapper: will be politicized. Tell me another one.
Actually, they’re afraid it will be politicized in the wrong direction. They were ecstatically happy when it was politicized in their favor and used to destroy those they considered their enemies.
Bongino is described in the headlines of many of these MSM articles as a talk show guy. For example, NPR uses this headline: “What to know about Dan Bongino, the media personality tapped as FBI deputy director.” The NY Times goes with this: “Right-Wing Commentator Named F.B.I. Deputy Director – The choice of Dan Bongino is a radical departure from the bureau’s history of having a veteran agent serve in the key role that oversees operations.” They know that the headlines are all that many people read, so headlines are important. And it’s not as though it’s untrue; Bongino is a “right-wing commentator.” But that’s not why he was chosen. And although the Times does say – not in the headline, but in the first paragraph – that Bongino also has been a NYC police officer and Secret Service agent, it’s clear from the headline what they wish to emphasize.
Plus this:
The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence.
I wonder whether it was ever known for being politically independent. In the days of J. Edgar Hoover? I wouldn’t exactly describe it that way. But whatever independence it once had – whatever objective application of the law and its energies – ended when it turned its focus on Trump and the right. I’m not sure what date to give the beginning of that pivot, but it certainly was in place early in Trump’s first presidential term. But those who are either oblivious to that fact or who applaud it are of course upset at Patel and Bongino.
The Hill article quotes none other than that pillar of objectivity and fairness, Senator Adam Schiff:
Trump installs another loyalist who won’t say no to any immoral or unethical act. And our law enforcement agencies — and the public safety — are further degraded.
Further degraded? You and your party have degraded it so much that there’s almost nothing left.
A bit more on Bongino’s background, from Wiki:
Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. In 2002 he left the New York Field Office to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush’s second term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.
Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges. …
In May 2018, after Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy and some conservative legal experts challenged Trump’s claims that the FBI had spied on his 2016 presidential campaign, Bongino claimed Gowdy had been “fooled” by the Department of Justice. In February 2019, he accused Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of attempting a coup against Trump.
Bongino reportedly told the House Judiciary Committee during hearings on police brutality that efforts to reduce the funding of police departments were an “abomination” that should be dropped “before someone gets hurt”.
After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump refused to concede, Bongino backed his false claims of election fraud, and claimed that Democrats had rigged the election.
Bongino was a strong critic of face mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that face masks are largely ineffective and deriding them as “face diapers” on occasion.
Most of that seems correct, doesn’t it? Whether or not fraud occurred in 2020, or enough fraud to affect the results, there certainly was enough “rigging.”
I say let Patel and Bongino give it a try. Bongino wouldn’t have been my first choice or even second or third for this position. But perhaps he’ll do a good job in helping clean up the FBI. It certainly could use some cleaning up.
With Patel and Bongino running the FBI, we’re definitely not living in the same country the “Biden” administration gave us. Good.
This pick sound a lot like Hegseth — a guy with experience in the field but not one who had to make compromises to rise to the top ranks. Good luck to him.
My one reserved side-eye at Bongino was his decision to take up residence in Maryland. I mean, that’s just nuts.
The top positions need to get taken by Trump people fast. And start cleaning out those who worked for the Democrats only.
I have listened to Bongino quite a bit. He’s on the morning show at 770AM here in WA.
He strikes me as knowing a lot about the deep state from his years as a SS officer. Also, he has no aspirations to make a career at the FBI. That allows him the latitude to step on a few toes.
I think he’s honest and wants to serve the country. After all, he did run for the Senate. And he’s a law-and-order guy. We need more of them in places that count. Wishing him fair winds and following seas because he and Patel need all the help they can get.
The FBI should be eliminated: hollowed out, gutted, and its then-empty shell wrecked and broken into miniscule pieces and buried in salted ground. The very idea of taking it as it is and “cleaning it up” is a foolish and fool-hardy piece of wishful thinking. So long as it exists at all, it will contain the seeds of its own re-growth into the corrupt political power it has been for the tens of decades since its inception.
Ask me who won the election in 2020, and my honest answer is “I don’t know. And I never can know due to the lack of election procedure security.”
So if the Donks want us to trust their ‘elections’ then they have to prove that they are worthy of our trust.
As for the FBI? FBI = American Gestapo. I wish Patel and Bongino success in the mission they have accepted.
Bongino had stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which is in remission. Dealing with a potentially terminal illness now held a bay, and being number 2 at the FBI, is way beyond the call of duty. I wish him all the best and pray for his triumph with both.
He left Maryland for Florida many years ago after running for the Senate. His commentary and assessment of Harry Logan (ex MD Gov. Larry Hogan) was apt and prescient.
He has been keeping detailed notes on the Dem. swamp cirtters in the Intelligence Community and the FIB for many years (Gen. Flynn, Russiagate, etc.)
Time for the worst in the FBI to find out what FAFO means.
Schiff doesn’t like Bondino? No surprise. Bongino has said that Schiff should be in jail, repeatedly. Bongino as #2 in the FBI has to have Schiff wetting his pants. He has Constitutional immunity for statement in Congress, but he made all sorts of blatantly false statements outside the Congressional enclave.
Bongino is described in the headlines of many of these MSM articles as a talk show guy.
That is the same script that the media–and Senator Elizabeth Warren–followed in discussing Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.SIT DOWN, POCAHONTAS: Elizabeth Warren Gets DRAGGED on Twitter/X for Criticizing Trump Choice of Pete Hegseth for Defense Sec.
Senator Warren made no mention of Hegseth’s twenty years of military service, nor of the books he had written. Of course she didn’t. Anything that might indicate he was qualified to be Secretary of Defense had to be omitted.
Full scale attack–that’s the Democrat way. Which helps explain why I don’t regret leaving the Democrats.
Neo: “Bongino is a “right-wing commentator.” But that’s not why he was chosen.”
I am not so sure, in that almost all of the top major admin folks have demonstrated an ability to think on their feet and respond forcefully and clearly to media hacks.
Actually, for a while I kept confusing Bongino with Joe Rogin, as I did not really listen to either of them, and only knew about them via reading commentary or catching short snatches of video, etc.
buddhaha on February 24, 2025 at 9:07 pm said:
“Schiff … has Constitutional immunity for statement in Congress, but he made all sorts of blatantly false statements outside the Congressional enclave.”
But just where or how far does than enclave extend? Art. I, Section 6 suggest clearly within their respective House “for any Speech or Debate in either house”. And they can’t be arrested while traveling to and from such congressional duties. But does that mean the actual chamber, the hallways, their offices, the porticos and steps, or however far the “grounds” surrounding the building extends?
Just as in the days when Irish-Americans taking office and filling up all the appointments with Irish-Americans was corruption, and Anglo-Americans doing the same thing with Anglo-Americans was reform, it’s only politicization when the wrong people do it.
I have to learn not to confuse Dan Bongino and Dan Scavino.
I think the president and the attorney-general might have the authority to break up the FBI into a set of successor agencies. I’d like to see them do that.
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A big problem is the federal penal code and code of criminal procedure. Wish anyone took an interest in amending them.
Not sure the Eff Bee Eye can be saved by breaking it up. But certainly can only hope Patel and Bongino the very best.
The Eff Bee Eye took down 2 Republican Presidents
Art Deco: “break up the FBI into a set of successor agencies. I’d like to see them do that.”
Why do you think that would be good?
I thought too many agencies was already a problem.
On Schiff, is lying his head off in leftist media appearances criminal?
Kate–I always thought that a member of Congress could not be stopped from traveling to attend Congress and that, they were immune from prosecution for anything they said in debate, on the floor of the House or Senate but, other than that, they were not immune from prosecution for anything they said outside the halls of Congress.
Yes, Snow on Pine, but is lying in public a crime? He’d be liable for civil damages if Trump decided to sue him (but since Trump is a public figure, that would likely fail), but what’s the criminal exposure?
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/02/25/wow-michael-shellenberger-drops-another-bombshell-reports-fbi-employees-destroying-evidence-n2408917#google_vignette
everything they project is what they do,
https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1894409672808972420
https://twitchy.com/gordon-k/2025/02/24/intelligence-perverts-chris-rufo-discovers-secret-government-chat-groups-that-will-make-you-sick-n2408872
Why do you think that would be good? I thought too many agencies was already a problem.
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‘Too many agencies’ is not a problem. Agencies with bad missions, agencies with corrupted institutional cultures, agencies with confused missions, and agencies with powers too extensive and too intensive are a problem.
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Have a gander at DoJ. Now see if you can find a department at the state or local level with this assemblage of services. Now ask yourself just what is the division of labor between DoJ and Homeland Security.
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Now look at the FBI and try to make sense of the division of labor between it and other federal investigatory agencies.
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FBI is an omnibus agency which investigates just about anything it cares to. Why do we have such an agency?
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It’s all just a collection of barnacles.
There were IED’s planted near the DNC and RNC offices in DC on Jan 6th that have never been explained as to who or what was involved. Which Bongino has mentioned many times on his radio show. If the evidence hasn’t been destroyed, we may finally get an answer. But that’s a big if on the evidence.
Bongino has something really important, in addition to his ground level LEO experience.
He has a very real sense of PUBLIC optics. Most of the career mooks who head up large Federal agencies have a keenly developed sense of INSIDE The Beltway optics. What Joe American thinks? Not so much.
It promises to be interesting.