FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino set the record straight about his boss, Kash Patel, following reports that the director was a party animal who spent more time engaging in Washington, D.C.’s nightlife than working at his job. In a lengthy X post, Bongino, a former Secret Service agent-turned-successful conservative media mogul, lashed out at those perpetuating the rumors and said he’d stake his reputation on what he says are false allegations.
“I have no desire to sugarcoat this one – it’s been difficult in this new role to stay relatively quiet while certain elements of the media continue to entirely fabricate stories about what we’re doing at the FBI. But that’s part of the job as a public servant. I don’t work for myself anymore, I work for the public. And while I can’t address all of the nonsense in this one post, I will address the repeated attacks on Director Patel,” Bongino wrote in the lengthy update.
“The Director’s office is attached to mine. I am in most of the briefings he is in. He spends anywhere between 10-12 hours in the office attending meetings with everyone from foreign heads of law enforcement to our counter-terror teams, and more. Any assertion otherwise is a verifiable lie designed to stop our reforms and fracture your trust. I will die on this hill. You are being clearly lied to by people with an agenda, and it’s not your agenda,” he wrote.
I’d like to update you on some things that I think are going well, and some things that we can, and will, do better.
The workforce has been working overtime on task force operations to remove dangerous illegal aliens from the country. The work continues. The message is clear.…
— Dan Bongino (@FBIDDBongino) May 10, 2025
Bongino also provided more details about his brief time in office thus far:
I’d like to update you on some things that I think are going well, and some things that we can, and will, do better.
The workforce has been working overtime on task force operations to remove dangerous illegal aliens from the country. The work continues. The message is clear. If you came here illegally to prey on our citizens, your days here are numbered. These removal and incarceration operations will dramatically change the crime landscape in the country when combined with the administration’s laser-focus on sealing the border shut. Expect these operations to ramp up, not slow down.
Crimes against children are a priority for the workforce. Operation “Restoring Justice,” where we locked up child predators and 764 subjects, in every part of the country, is just the beginning. We are going to take your freedom if you take away a child’s innocence. Think twice if you’ve targeted children, because you’re next.
We’re clearing information to Congress, and the public, as quickly as possible. In just the couple of months since we’ve sworn in we’ve responded to requests for information on the attack on Rep. Scalise and members of Congress, the Nashville attack, Crossfire Hurricane, the COVID cover-up and more. We are working with the DOJ on the Epstein case and, as the AG stated, there are voluminous amounts of downloaded child sexual abuse material that we are dealing with. There are also victim’s statements that are entitled to specific protections. We need to do this correctly, but I do understand the public’s desire to get the information out there.
We’re doing our best in the current budgetary environment to prioritize the mission, act as good fiscal stewards, find waste and inefficiencies, and to enact reforms while moving the FBI forward. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ll get it done. We have weekly meetings where we meet with our CFO, and our new CIO and CTO team, and we go through budget items line by line. It’s your money, and it’s your FBI. We won’t forget that.