With Arrival of Bongino, Trump Loyalists Take Command of the F.B.I.
From his wildly popular podcast to the No. 2 post at the F.B.I., Dan Bongino joins Kash Patel, President Trump’s former election surrogate, to lead the agency at a turning point.
From his wildly popular podcast to the No. 2 post at the F.B.I., Dan Bongino joins Kash Patel, President Trump’s former election surrogate, to lead the agency at a turning point.
www.nytimes.com
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In the closing minutes of his podcast, the right-wing provocateur Dan Bongino made a promise. Joining the F.B.I. as its deputy director, he acknowledged, would require a stark change in approach after years of making his name as a pugilistic pundit.
“I have to stay out of the political space because it’s the right thing to do and it’s the rules,” he said during his last episode on Friday. He added, “I’m not going there to be some partisan.”
His arrival on Monday as the F.B.I.’s second in command will test that promise, cementing a major shift at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, where he will join its director, Kash Patel, in overseeing a bureau of about 38,000 people.
It puts two staunch Trump loyalists in charge of an agency long known for its tradition of independence. Collectively, they have the least leadership experience of any pair overseeing the F.B.I. since its founding more than a century ago. …
… Mr. Bongino will replace Robert C. Kissane, who had more than two decades of experience as an agent and had been serving as acting deputy director. Mr. Kissane is expected to
return to New York.
Hours after Mr. Patel was sworn in last month, he signaled his intent to sharply restructure the bureau, ordering the relocation of 1,500 agents and personnel in the Washington region to field offices around the country.
Internal documents show that he told several hundred agents on temporary duty to return to their home offices by the end of June, a potentially significant shift in ascending the ranks of the agency. Those temporary assignments to headquarters are critical to getting promoted, providing agents with deep insights into the bureau’s abilities and reach.
But Mr. Patel will be hard-pressed to attain his larger goal because of steep relocation costs.
Last week, Mr. Patel also altered the hierarchy of the F.B.I., which could, in effect, insulate top agents in the field from Mr. Bongino because they will no longer answer to the deputy director. Some former agents saw that as a positive development. …”