Trump announces right-wing commentator Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI

President Trump said Sunday night that Dan Bongino, a former New York City Police and Secret Service agent, turned right-wing expert and podcaster, would be the next deputy director of the FBI.

Mr. Trump made the announcement on his social media website. He said the newly-established FBI Director Kash Patel appointed Mr. Bungino as the second place in the country's most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of the vice director does not require Senate confirmation, which means that two firm Trump loyalists will effectively be at the highest sphere of institutions known for their independent traditions.

The FBI Agents Association told its member Mr Patel had privately admitted that the next deputy director should be an FBI agent, and announced about an hour after he announced. The obvious disconnection in choosing Mr. Bongino has exacerbated distrust in the hierarchy and archives.

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement posted on social media on Monday, Mr. Bongino praised FBI staff as “dedicated people” who “deserved leadership to support them, protect their mission and ensure they can get their job done. .”

He added: “I work here. I lead here. I'm here to ensure that law enforcement agencies in the United States adhere to the values ​​and integrity they have built.”

In the past, FBI directors have chosen senior agents with extensive experience, thus essentially operating the bureau’s operations, which is a complex and hard work that requires close cooperation with foreign partners and sensitive investigations.

Mr. Bongino's choice was a radical and sudden departure from this practice and sparked a huge surveillance and investigation power on how two people who had never served as FBI agents oversee a 38,000-person agency, budget About $11, billion.

The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leader lady in the bureau’s history. It is almost certain that people are about how men who freely peddled misinformation and embrace partisan politics make an institution that is usually isolated from the White House disruption.

“My life is about owning libs now,” Bongino said in 2018, also responding to the complaints of the far right people, condemning the so-called deep states.

Mr. Bongino’s advancement came during a time of great turmoil in the agency as the Justice Department has launched a number of senior executives who, in general, have decades of experience and experience running different departments of the bureau.

Interim leaders Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Keane initially refused to accept the Justice Department’s request for a local name to investigate the Capitol attack, which made They are loved internally, and willing, willingness to stand up inside the bureau is considered something of political intervention.

Many hope that the two will stay in Washington to help Mr. Patel run the FBI

In an internal communication distributed to agents before Mr. Trump’s announcement, Natalie Bara, head of the Agent Association, said she and the organization were both at a meeting with Mr. Patel last month. Vice President Jen Morrow urged his lieutenant to “become an active agent on board for many compelling reasons, which is the case for 117 years.”

She said Mr Patel had agreed.

Mr. Patel had wanted Mr. Bongino to be his agent, a person familiar with the matter said, although it was unclear whether Mr. Trump also pushed Mr. Bongino's choice.

Mr. Bongino ran three times to be elected to the office before becoming a right-wing commentator.

Mr. Bongino is a former Fox News host who left the network in 2023. It is worth noting that he hosted Mr. Trump in the show in 2021, when the network and Rupert Murdoch’s most media empire – trying to open the page Trump era.

On Fox News in December 2021, Geraldo Rivera called the January 6 incident a “riot” and was “released, incited and inspired” by Mr. Trump. This leads Mr. Bongino to question his loyalty. “The back spear of the president you are going to attend is disgusting,” he said.

His tough style of speaking made him quickly become his star on radio and social media, where he often peddled rampant misinformation. This includes spreading the falsehood of the stolen election in 2020, false claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and permanent mazes and unfounded conspiracy theories involving Democratic conspiracies to monitor Trump’s 2016 Campaign.

In an interview with The New Yorker, then-Fox News host Pete Hegseth and now the Secretary of Defense equated Mr. Bongino with a general like him, who was like him “Serve in information warfare.”

The news raises questions about how the bureau retains its credibility, their credibility for two leaders who prefer exaggerated.

“I will always support you because you have the support of the American people,” Mr. Patel said in an email to the FBI after confirmation.

Maggie Haberman Contribution report.