FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is stepping down in January

FBI Director Kash Patel, left, and Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, conduct a news conference at the Department of Justice, Dec. 4, 2025.

Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Wednesday said he will leave that post in January.

Bongino, a former police officer, Secret Service agent, and conservative radio and podcast host who trafficked in conspiracy theories, was a controversial pick by President Donald Trump for the No. 2 slot at the FBI.

Bongino, who will leave after less than a year on the job, is one of the first major figures of Trump’s second term to step down.

“I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director [Kash] Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose,” Bongino wrote in a social media post.

“Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you. God bless America, and all those who defend Her,” Bongino said.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump confirmed Bongino could be leaving.

“Dan did a great job,” Trump told reporters. “I think he wants to go back to his show.”

MS Now reported earlier in the day about Bongino’s plans to leave.

The outlet said he had told confidants that he would not be returning to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., to work this month.

“Print whatever you’d like,” Bongino told MS Now when contacted for comment. “No one believes you anyway. Thanks.”

The FBI declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.

Patel, in a post on X, said “Dan is the best partner I could’ve asked for in helping restore this FBI.”

“He not only completed his mission — he far exceeded it,” Patel wrote. “We will miss him but I’m thankful he accepted the call to serve. Our country is better and safer for it.”

Bongino had no prior FBI when Trump tapped him for the high-profile law enforcement post.

His prior discussion of conspiracy theories on right-wing media resurfaced after he joined the government.

While a private citizen, Bongino reportedly suggested that the planting of pipe bombs in Washington on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was an “inside job.”

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters, after disembarking Air Force One on his return from Dover, Delaware, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., Dec. 17, 2025.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

But earlier this month, Bongino took a victory lap when federal agents, after a nearly five-year search, arrested and charged Brian Cole Jr. with setting those devices. Cole is not associated with the FBI or other federal authorities.

When asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity how his recent comments squared with his past claims about the pipe bombs, Bongino said he was “paid in the past” for his opinions, “and one day I will be back in that space.”

“That’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts,” he said.

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Bongino also previously questioned official accounts of the circumstances around Jeffrey Epstein’s death. The wealthy financier and notorious sex offender hanged himself while in jail in August 2019, after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

As an FBI official, Bongino said there was no question that Epstein died by suicide.

“I have reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. There’s no evidence in the case file indicating otherwise,” he wrote on X in May.

In July, the FBI released a memo concluding that Epstein died by suicide and that his rumored “client list” did not exist.

That memo sparked a backlash among members of Trump’s MAGA movement, where conspiracy theories about Epstein have proliferated for years.

Soon after, Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi angrily confronted each other at the White House, according to a New York Times report.

Friday is the deadline for the Trump administration to comply with a bipartisan law ordering the release of the government’s files on its Epstein investigations.