How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director

Dan Bongino has spent the last decade building a career in right-wing media based on his sycophantic support of President Donald Trump and his willingness to engage in endless conspiracy theories about everything from Covid-19 and the 2020 elections to the FBI, which he has said should no longer exist in its current form. Bongino, who previously served as a police officer in New York and as a Secret Service agent protecting former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has no FBI experience—a trait he shares with Kash Patel, the QAnon-promoting Trump loyalist who was last week confirmed as the new director of the FBI. In January, after he was nominated but before he was confirmed by the Senate, Patel met with two senior members of the FBI Agents Association, and, Patel “privately agreed” that “the FBI Deputy Director should continue to be an on-board, active Special Agent—as has been the case for 117 years for many compelling reasons.” This information was shared with the associations’ members in a memo sent on Sunday evening, an hour before Trump announced Bongino’s appointment, according to a copy of the newsletter reviewed by WIRED. Bongino is a Trump loyalist who has in the past referred to the president as “an apex predator.” A three-time failed congressional candidate, he has risen from the fringes of the online conspiracy community to become one of the most prominent voices in right-wing media, leveraging online platforms, as well as appearances on Fox News, to push wild conspiracy theories about the agency he will now help to oversee and about the government generally.