To hear Bongino describing it, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is 'the most corrupt law enforcement institute' in America and a 'full left -wing political action committee' dedicated to the cover of democratic crimes and withholding the truth of the American people.
“It's time for an absolute cleaning,” he said in 2023.
Now Mr. Bongino's old right-wing expert, podcaster and vocal ally of President Trump is tapped to serve as the new deputy director of the agency. His podcast and radio show will end production on March 14.
The task, which does not require confirmation of the Senate, is traditionally fulfilled by a senior agent with an enormous operational experience and a deep understanding of how the different divisions of the agency work. The last two vice directors together had more than 35 years of experience before they took on the role. Mr Bongino served as a police officer and an American secret service years ago, but has no experience with the FBI
Mr Bongino's precise plans remain opaque in front of the office, but on recent podcasts he said that he would free the agency of politicization and concentrate on crimes such as drug trafficking – despite the agency's broad mandate to protect national security, investigate crimes and row corruption by civil servants on all levels.
All in all, Mr Bongino's years of comments about his radio program and podcast have painted a vision for “dramatic change” at the FBI, as he said last week. Those ideas largely correspond to criticism from his friend Kash Patel, who was recently confirmed as director of the Agency. However, some of their ideas would probably require extra financing.
The FBI refused to comment, but it recently rejected the charges of “corruption” that were leveled by a Republican cabinet secretary and said that such claims are not “supported by any evidence” and “the men and women of the FBI undine”
During his radio program on Wednesday, respond to questions sent by the New York Times, Mr. Bongino said: “It is my job to produce political opinions.” He added: “Your political opinions are of course not a condition for such a job. My experience with law enforcement was. '
This is what Mr. Bongino in the past has said about his vision of the FBI
Fire 'everyone'
Mr Bongino has often focused on FBI officials who in his mind showed Mr Trump unfaithful by pursuing research against him or his supporters.
'How do we repair this? We fired everyone who was assisting, “he said in June 2023 after Mr Trump was charged in a classified document case. The charges deliberately include the retention of national defense secrets in violation of the Spionage Act, whereby false statements are made and a conspiracy to hinder justice.
“We don't just fire the people who did this. Everyone who kept along and did nothing, while the Ministry of Justice and the FBI were destroyed, destroyed by corrupt crowds. Everyone is fired. Everyone.”
Republicans and the allies of Mr. Trump have tried charges against Mr. Trump to play down by claiming that some studies by the FBI were little more than a “witch hunt” against him.
The indictment against wrong documents was aimed at the storage of Mr Trump classified documents in several rooms in Mar-A-Lago, including a shower. The investigation was started by the FBI in 2022, but was eventually taken over by an independent special counselor. The charges were rejected after Mr. Trump's re -election, because the policy of the Ministry of Justice prohibits the designation and prosecution of a sitting president.
Restructure the FBI
In earlier shows, Mr Bongino endorsed Mr Patel's suggestions that the FBI had been blown up and that his agents in Washington should be spread throughout the country to fight crime.
“Corruption must be rejected immediately,” he said during a show in June 2023. “The FBI should no longer exist as it has now been formed. The mission must be distributed. The money must be distributed, among other things, that take the oath to their country seriously.”
Mr. Patel has already started appreciating some of those promises. He announced in February of plans to relocate around 1500 agents and others from the Washington region to field offices and other facilities throughout the country.
Expand the 'cover-ups' of the FBI
Mr Bongino has claimed that the FBI has the truth about different mysteries that have animated right -wing influencers for years.
Among them is the mystery around two pipe bombs that were planted outside the headquarters of both political parties in Washington the day before Mr Trump's meeting on January 6, 2021. The bombs never explodes, and it remains a mystery that she has planted, although the FBI has released new details in January, video.
Mr. Bongino said that the FBI tried to hide the crime in what he called the 'greatest scandal in the FBI history'. With reference to no evidence, he said that FBI officials know the identity of the bomber and that they keep the secret to protect Democrats or government insiders. Former FBI officials who worked in the case said that that was incorrect.
He said that the following leaders of the FBI “should go to the story on day 1 and restore confidence.”
“It is absolutely crystal clear that this was a job in the inside,” he said about the bombs during a broadcast in November. “I don't necessarily mean within the government. Could be. But there is no doubt in my mind that this was not a Maga person who planted that bomb. This was an anti-Trump Lunatic, and the FBI knows who it is and they won't tell you. '
End of 'politized' investigations …
Mr. Bongino said that Trump supporters were unfair to the FBI when crimes investigated on January 6.
“We don't investigate bad guys because we waste FBI, HSI and Doj Time on investigating who? Maga and Christian Nationalists, “he said in November 2023, referring to research into domestic security.
What really happened: the FBI investigated people based on evidence that they had committed crimes, such as illegally entering the American Capitol, the mistreatment of police officers or entering into incitement conspiracy. During the convictions of a handful of defendants, federal prosecutors asked for what is known as a terrorism improvement.
Christopher A. Wray, who resigned as FBI director before Mr Trump took office, described the attack in which supporters of Mr Trump plunder the capitol, resulting in five dead and dozens of injuries to police officers, as inland terrorism. Mr. Wray was confirmed during the first government of Mr Trump.
At the same time, Mr Bongino suggested that the FBI should concentrate on other violent offenses such as drug trafficking, although the FBI is in charge of investigating a violation of federal legislation.
“I actually think that the intelligence function must be completely removed from the FBI,” said Mr. Bongino in November last year. “They have to go back to bank robbery examination, kidnapping, serious things.”
The FBI did not leave those activities. The recent announcements from the office include arrests with regard to an attack by the Islamic State, a series of ATMs in New York and money laundering in St. Louis.
… and possibly start research against Democrats.
Mr Bongino has been claiming for years that progressive leaders, including former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., have committed crimes and said that leaders must be investigated at the FBI.
“When Kash Patel goes in there, I think many of these people involved should be investigated,” he said in January about his conviction that the FBI played a role in the uprising in the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “If crimes were committed, continued.”
In a report last year, the Ministry of Justice found 'no evidence' that the FBI 'had employees in the various protest mixes, or in the Capitol, on January 6', on January 6 '.
Mr Bongino has repeated the Republican claims that the FBI and the Ministry of Justice are armed against conservatives and those agencies want to change on left-wing Americans, although the agency has a long history of investigating Democrats. In a show that was broadcast in January, Mr Bongino suggested that they would use the government to go behind the law in a Tit-for-Tat reaction to what he claimed that Democrats had done.
“They armed the government to go after Trump for accusations they made up,” he said. “We are going to use the government to go after people that we believe we have violated the legitimate law.”
Mr. Bongino seemed to acknowledge that he would politicize the FBI and respond to his podcast that this was the last thing he thinks about.
“We are there for the opposite reason,” he said. “To ensure that nothing of that happens.”
