WASHINGTON — In the closing minutes of his podcast, right-wing provocateur Dan Bongino made a promise. Joining the FBI 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 Friday during his last episode. He added, “I’m not going there to be some partisan.”
His arrival Monday as the FBI’s second in command will test that promise, cementing a major shift at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, where he joins 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 FBI since its founding more than a century ago.
Already, Patel has raised eyebrows. He has reversed course on a pledge to install a veteran agent as his No. 2 and works out with a personal trainer inside the FBI. He has swiftly moved to restructure the bureau, pushing to decentralize the command structure and reassign many at its headquarters. He quickly established a ballooning presence for his FBI director account on social media.
In selecting Bongino, whose experience in law enforcement dates from years ago when he served as a police officer and Secret Service agent, Patel is breaking from tradition and relying on someone who has little familiarity with the bureau’s inner workings.
Best known as a high-octane conservative commentator, Bongino, who frequently shared his disdain for the FBI on his podcast and radio show, will replace Robert C. Kissane, who had more than two decades of experience as an agent and had been serving as acting deputy director. Kissane is expected to return to New York.
Hours after 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.
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