Kash Patel’s troubled tenure as Donald Trump’s FBI director may be “at its end,” according to multiple sources, in the wake of the recent mass shooting at Brown University along with a series of other perceived mishaps. Meanwhile, staffers also say that Deputy Director Dan Bongino is already “out the door,” signaling a larger shakeup at the agency.
Patel boasted Sunday on X that the FBI had brought in a “person of interest” in the Brown shooting using “geolocation capabilities” and then added that Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez had praised the FBI for following through on a tip to locate the potential suspect.
A few hours later in a Sunday evening press conference, however, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that person had been released, as there was “no basis” to keep them in custody. Patel had made similar announcements about a “person of interest” during the early stages of the FBI’s investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murder, and was also forced to walk those back.
Insiders told Salon that pressure has been mounting against Patel from inside the FBI. White House officials, on background, said that Trump “wouldn’t be all that upset” to see Patel go.
According to three different sources inside the FBI, the once-respected federal law enforcement agency is “in shambles.” Morale is at an “all-time low,” said one 30-year veteran, adding, “The cause is at the top.”
Staffers say that Bongino’s office has been empty for “close to two weeks,” indicating he has already left the agency. No such announcement has been made, however, and Bongino remains active on social media. On Monday, he reposted news of the FBI’s arrest of four alleged members of a pro-Palestinian group accused of planning a New Year’s Eve bombing attack on Los Angeles.
“Nobody here will miss him,” one of the staffers said. “He has no credibility.”
Jimmy Paul, Bongino’s chief of staff for the past nine months, has already left Washington for a new post as.special agent in charge of the Baltimore field office.
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According to FBI sources who spoke to Salon, Andrew Bailey, who until recently was Missouri’s attorney general, is favored to take over the role of FBI director “probably around the first of the year.”
Bailey is viewed positively by MAGA insiders and reportedly has the backing of Sen. Josh Hawley, the influential Missouri Republican. Democrats say that he has no FBI experience and is motivated by politics. “President Trump is appointing a partisan politician,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told NBC when Bailey was recently appointed to serve alongside Bongino as co-deputy director.
FBI insiders say Bailey’s stock has “risen significantly” of late. He recently joined a U.S. delegation led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to a human trafficking conference in Rome, according to the New York Sun.
In response to Salon’s request for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson denied that any changes were forthcoming at the FBI, adding that “there’s no truth to anything” published on Salon. “President Trump has full confidence in his entire law enforcement and justice team,” she said.
Trump himself briefly addressed the FBI’s handling of the Brown shooting during a press availability on Monday afternoon. “You really have to ask the school a little bit more about that, because this was a school problem,” he said. “They had their own guards, they had their own police, they had their own everything. But you’d have to ask that question, really, to the school, not to the FBI. … The FBI will do a good job, but they came in after the fact.”
While Patel has been under fire for a lack of credibility and perceived incompetence, so has Bongino. He had no prior FBI experience, having previously been a Secret Service agent and a New York police officer. He became a right-wing media celebrity as a podcaster, accusing the FBI of a massive cover-up in its handling of the Jan. 6 insurrection. After his FBI appointment, Bongino backed away from those views, saying that in the past he was “paid” for expressing controversial opinions.
Bongino was among the loudest voices urging the full release of FBI files on Jeffrey Epstein, and had suggested the late sex trafficker was murdered by “deep state” actors to protect powerful elites.
Bongino has faced increasing internal criticism for “his lack of understanding of how things work,” an FBI source told Salon. That echoed a recent report from a national alliance of retired and active duty agents and analysts, which described Bongino as “something of a clown.”
“He has no future here, even if he stays,” one staffer said.
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