Dan Bongino
Daniel John Bongino is an American conservative podcaster, radio host, and law enforcement officer who served as the 20th deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2025 to 2026. He hosted The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble and previously hosted Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox News until April 2023.
Bongino began his career as a New York City Police Department officer from 1995 to 1999 before serving as a U.S. Secret Service agent from 1999 to 2011. He later unsuccessfully ran for Congress three times as a Republican. On February 23, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that Bongino had been named the next deputy director of the FBI. He assumed office on March 17, after concluding his commentating roles on March 14.
On December 17, 2025, Bongino announced on Twitter that he would leave his post in January 2026; he officially left his position on January 3.
Early life and education
Daniel John Bongino was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He is of Italian descent.He graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School, a Catholic all-male high school in Jamaica, Queens, in 1992. He attended Queens College, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. He also earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Pennsylvania State University.
Secret Service and law enforcement career (1995–2011)
Bongino worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department from 1995 to 1999.Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent. In 2002 he left the New York Field Office to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, Maryland. In 2006, he was assigned to the Presidential Protection Division during George W. Bush's second term. He remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the U.S. Senate.
Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges.
Bongino was criticized by former colleagues at the Secret Service for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House. A former colleague accused him of "trying to draw attention to himself and...hijacking the Secret Service brand." Bongino said he had access to "high-level discussions" in the White House.
Bongino rejected birtherism, the claim that President Obama was born outside the United States.
Media career
Bongino has been a radio host and commentator on both local and national programs. He has guest-hosted The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show and has filled in on WMAL-FM in Washington, D.C., and WBAL in Baltimore. He was a paid contributor to NRATV until December 2018. He also guest-hosted Hannity on Fox News in December 2018.In December 2019, Bongino launched the Bongino Report as an alternative to the Drudge Report. He criticized the Drudge Report's founder, Matt Drudge, for allegedly shifting away from supporting Donald Trump.
In October 2020, Politico reported that Bongino's posts on Facebook were routinely among the most shared on the platform.
Following the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Bongino's Twitter account was temporarily suspended on January 7 for violating the platform's civic integrity policy. On his podcast, he argued that political violence had been normalized by leftist movements and accused liberal media outlets of hypocrisy in their coverage of protests.
In March 2021, Cumulus Media signed Bongino to replace The Rush Limbaugh Show on its talk radio stations while continuing to carry his one-hour podcast. In May of that year, Fox News announced he would host Unfiltered with Dan Bongino, which premiered on June 5. Between July and August 2021, he hosted Canceled in the USA, a five-part Fox Nation series on cancel culture. Talkers Magazine estimated his radio show had 8.5 million listeners as of October 2021, ranking second among programs competing to succeed Rush Limbaugh.
In January 2022, YouTube permanently banned Bongino for attempting to circumvent a temporary suspension related to a video questioning the efficacy of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the ban, he had already moved his podcast to Rumble.
On December 11, 2022, Bongino announced plans to end his Cumulus radio show at the conclusion of his contract. Cumulus began phasing his show out of its stations' lineups in June 2023. However, in December 2023, he reversed course, securing a multi-year contract extension with Westwood One. Upon Bongino's acceptance of his FBI position in 2025, Westwood One replaced Bongino with Vince Coglianese, a personality based at WMAL-FM.
On April 20, 2023, Bongino announced his departure from Fox News, citing failed contract negotiations.
Conflict over COVID-19 vaccine mandates
On October 19, 2021, Bongino said that he opposed corporate vaccine mandates, although he said he was vaccinated. He called on his employer, Cumulus Media, to end their vaccine mandate, which had been announced in September. Unvaccinated employees at Cumulus had already been fired on October 11 and replaced."You can have me or the mandate. But you can't have both of us", Bongino said on his show. After taking nearly two weeks off, he returned to announce he was negotiating his ultimatum with Cumulus, and starting a fund for former employees of Cumulus fired because of the vaccination mandate.
Brian Rosenwald, a talk radio historian, believed Bongino's request was never much of an ultimatum, seeing little reason for Cumulus or its host to sever ties. Rosenwald commented:
In a December 2021 interview with The New Yorker, Bongino stated that he had been vaccinated for COVID-19, at the advice of his doctor due to his [|lymphoma].
Political aspirations
2012 U.S. Senate election
Bongino ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 2012. Former gubernatorial candidate Brian Murphy was his campaign chairman. Bongino won the Republican primary on April 3, 2012, with 33.8 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. He lost the general election in a landslide, taking only 26.6% of the vote against incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin in a three-way election battle.2014 House of Representatives election
In the 2014 election, Bongino ran for the U.S. House seat in Maryland's 6th congressional district against incumbent Democrat John Delaney. Bongino narrowly lost to Delaney by 1.5 percentage points. Although Bongino carried four of the district's five counties, he ran a 20,500-vote deficit in the district's share of Montgomery County in the outer suburbs of Washington.2016 House of Representatives election
After moving to Florida in 2015, Bongino contemplated running for the United States Senate and Florida's 18th congressional district in 2016. However, in June 2016, Bongino declared that he would seek the Republican nomination for Florida's 19th congressional district. He faced Chauncey Goss, a Sanibel city councilman who sought the seat in 2012, and Francis Rooney, a businessman and former United States ambassador to the Holy See, in the primary.In an August 2016 interview with a Politico reporter, Bongino went on a profanity-laced rant against a reporter who asked about a story in the Naples Daily News that Bongino said was dishonest. The recorded phone call was published by Politico. He placed third in the August 2016 primary, losing the nomination to Rooney.
Deputy Director of the FBI (2025–2026)
On February 23, 2025, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Bongino would be the next deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bongino took office on March 17. Unlike the FBI director, the position of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation. On August 18, The New York Times reported that Bongino would share a "co-deputy directorship" role with Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey being tapped for the other "co-deputy director" position. Bailey became Co-Deputy Director of the FBI on September 15, 2025. On December 17, 2025, Bongino announced via Twitter that he would be stepping down as deputy director of the FBI in January 2026.Reopened investigations
In May 2025, Bongino announced that he and Patel would reopen or dedicate additional resources to three unresolved investigations: the pipe bombs placed near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021; the leak of the Dobbs draft opinion in 2022; and the discovery of cocaine at the White House in July 2023. Later that month, Bongino claimed on Fox News that the FBI had discovered a room containing documents from former FBI Director James Comey's tenure that had not been properly digitized or logged, stating "you're going to be stunned" by the contents once declassified.Epstein files controversy
On July 11, CNN reported that Bongino was considering resigning over the Department of Justice's investigation into the death of Jeffrey Epstein.Arctic Frost briefings
On October 6, 2025, Bongino briefed eight Republican senators on documents discovered during an FBI file review showing that the Arctic Frost investigation had obtained their phone toll records in 2023. The records covered January 4–7, 2021, and none of the senators were under investigation. Bongino stated, "It is a disgrace that I have to stand on Capitol Hill and reveal this — that the FBI was once weaponized to track the private communications of U.S. lawmakers for political purposes."January 6 pipe bomb arrest
On December 4, 2025, the FBI arrested Brian Cole Jr. in connection with the pipe bombs placed near the RNC and DNC headquarters on January 5, 2021. Attorney General Pam Bondi credited the arrest to work by Bongino and Patel, stating, "This cold case languished for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino came to the FBI." Current and former officials disputed that characterization, telling CNN that the evidence had not been "gathering dust."Before joining the FBI, Bongino had claimed on his podcast that the pipe bombs were an "inside job" and that the FBI was engaged in a "massive cover-up." When asked about his previous statements on Fox News following the arrest, Bongino said, "I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions. That's clear. And one day I will 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."