WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made in his prior role as a popular podcast host.
The departure would be among the highest-profile resignations of the Trump administration, coming as the firing of career agents has contributed to upheaval at the FBI and as Director Kash Patel faces continued criticism over his use of a government plane for personal purposes and social media posts about active investigations.
Bongino announced his departure, which had been expected, in a post on X in which he said he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not say precisely when in January he would leave or reveal his future plans, but President Donald Trump, in response to a question earlier in the day about Bongino's fate, said: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”
In a social media post, Patel called Bongino “the best partner I could've asked for in helping restore this FBI.” He said Bongino “had not only completed his mission — he far exceeded it. We will miss him but I'm thankful he accepted the call to serve. Our country is better and safer for it.”
Bongino was always an unconventional pick for the No. 2 job at the FBI, a position that historically has entailed oversight of the bureau’s day-to-day operations and has been typically held by a career agent. Though he had previously worked as a New York City police officer and Secret Service agent, neither he nor Patel had any experience at the FBI before being picked for their jobs. But both came in pledging overhauls to an FBI they insisted had been weaponized against Trump.
Bongino was installed in the role in March by Trump after years as a conservative podcast host, where he used his platform to repeatedly rail against FBI leadership and to promote conspiracy theories related to the Epstein sex-trafficking case and pipe bombs discovered in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Once in the job, he used social media to communicate directly to Trump supporters restless over a perceived lack of action by the new FBI leadership to address their concerns. He reassured them the FBI under his watch was giving renewed attention to issues like the pipe bomb case, the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in 2022 and the discovery of cocaine in the White House during the Biden administration.
Yet he struggled to placate elements of Trump’s base who expected him to quickly deliver the FBI reforms he had long said were needed and to uncover the truths he claimed had been hidden by the federal government.
On the Epstein case, for instance, he had previously challenged the official ruling that the wealthy financier had taken his own life in a New York jail soon after his 2019 arrest. But after his arrival in the bureau, he said in a Fox News interview: “I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”
Bongino had separately speculated as recently as last year that the pipe bombs placed on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were either an “inside job" or the work of a “connected anti-Trump insider” and said the truth was shielded by a “massive cover-up.” He was confronted with those same comments when the FBI earlier this month arrested a 30-year-old Virginia man with no evident connection to the federal government, prompting skepticism from some that investigators had actually arrested the right person.
“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that's clear,” Bongino said in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “And one day, I'll 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.”
Questions about Bongino's future had lingered for months, particular after a tense exchange at the White House last July with Attorney General Pam Bondi following the abrupt announcement by the FBI and Justice Department that they would not be releasing any additional records from the Epstein investigation.
After that encounter, Bongino, normally active on social media, went silent from his FBI account for several days. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, posted on X at the time that she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” and had taken the day off to contemplate his future.
In August, the Trump administration took the unusual step of adding a co-deputy director, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
Bondi on Wednesday joined in the tributes, posting on X that Americans were safer because of Bongino's service. “Thank you, Dan," she wrote.
Dan Bongino, FBI deputy director, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.
It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.
Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.
The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Here is the latest:
U.S. and Israeli warplanes continued to pound Iran Saturday, hitting several targets including a petrochemical facility, Iranian media reported.
Iran's official English-language newspaper Tehran Times reported that an airstrike hit a facility belonging to Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in the western city of Mehran.
The newspaper said another air raid struck Mahshahr Special Petrochemical Zone in the southwestern Khuzestan province.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported several explosions heard late Saturday morning in the facility.
Mehr, another semiofficial news agency, reported that the strikes hit four companies within the zone.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the veiled threat in a social media post late Friday, asking about how busy oil tanker and container ship traffic is through the strait.
The 20-mile (32-kilometer) strait links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean and is one of the busiest chokepoints in global trade, with more than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships passing through it.
Iran has already greatly disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, sending fuel prices skyrocketing and jolting the world economy.
Disrupting transit through the Bab el-Madeb would force shipping firms to route their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, further hitting prices.
Israel’s rescue services said Saturday the man sustained glass shrapnel wounds after an Iranian missile hit the central city of Bnei Brak.
It wasn't clear if the glass shrapnel was caused by a direct strike or falling debris from an intercepted missile.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said it was taking the man to the hospital.
The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency said Saturday that the two men who were hanged belonged to the Iranian exile group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
The agency said Abul-Hassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amirian were convicted of “being members of a terrorist group.”
This brings to six the total number of MEK members executed since the start of the war.
Activists and rights groups say Iran routinely holds closed-door trials in which defendants are unable to challenge the accusations they face.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that its air force struck ballistic and and anti-aircraft missile storage sites in Tehran.
It said the strikes a day earlier included weapons manufacture sites as well as military research and development facilities in the Iranian capital.
It said the strikes are part of an ongoing phase to increase damage to Iran's “core systems and foundations.”
Authorities in Dubai said the facades of two buildings were damaged by debris from intercepted drones, including one belonging to U.S. tech firm Oracle. No injuries were reported.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to attack Oracle and 17 other U.S. companies after accusing them of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations in Iran.
Previous Iranian drone strikes caused damage to three Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
As of Friday, 247 of the wounded were Army soldiers, 63 were Navy sailors, 19 were Marines and 36 were Air Force airmen, according to Pentagon data available online.
It is unclear if the data includes any of the service members involved in the downing of two combat aircraft reported Friday.
Most of the wounded — 200 — were also mid to senior enlisted troops, 85 were officers and 80 were junior enlisted service members.
The current death toll remains at 13 service members killed in combat.
Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - An F-15E Strike Eagle turns toward the Panamint range over Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
