Kash has a new helper.
President Trump has tapped Dan Bongino, a hard-charging Trump supporter and one of America’s most popular and prolific conservative commentators, to serve as deputy director of the FBI.
A top podcaster, former Fox News host, New York City Police Department officer and 12-year veteran of the Secret Service, Bongino is a close friend of FBI Director Kash Patel, and will now serve as his right-hand man at the FBI, Trump announced on Truth Social Sunday night.
Trump’s choice of Bongino to join Patel at the FBI as its deputy came just 3 days days after the Senate confirmed Patel’s nomination, 49 to 51 with Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine the only two Republicans to vote against him.
The appointment is the latest sign that Trump is committed to aggressively cleaning house at the FBI.
Bongino, along with Patel, a former public defender and Justice Department lawyer who became a MAGA firebrand, will report to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of the Office of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to uncover threats and safeguard national security.
While Patel has experience as a lawyer and high-ranking official in federal intelligence agencies during Trump’s first term, Bongino has practical law enforcement experience as a former police officer and Secret Service agent.
Both have excoriated the FBI over its role in facilitating the investigations Trump has faced since 2017, including submitting faulty foreign intelligence court applications in the Trump-Russia investigation.
In Bongino, Patel will have a deputy who is also devoted to ending the politicization of the FBI and helping thoroughly investigate and provide far more public transparency on the would-be assassins who came close to killing Trump in the final months of the campaign.
