Dan Bongino is considering resigning from the FBI over the handling of the Epstein files.
The bureau’s deputy director reportedly told people he was considering stepping down amid a clash with the department of justice over the handling of the case, CNN reported.
“It’s accurate that Dan Bongino has told people he’s considering resigning amid a major clash between the FBI and DoJ over the fallout from the Epstein memo. (It remains to be seen if he actually does.)
“But hard to overstate the infighting happening over this the last few days as Maga anger has not let up,” Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s chief White House correspondent wrote on X.
Mr Bongino apparently also did not go into the office on Friday following an argument with the Pam Bondi, the attorney general, leading insiders to think he had quit.
He has come under fire for failing to release a tranche of evidence relating to the paedophile financier.
Clash with Pam Bondi
Tensions within Mr Trump’s Maga base threatened to boil over this week after the justice department and FBI concluded Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019, and did not maintain a “client list” of potential blackmail targets.
Sources told Axios that Mr Bongino had grown increasingly unhappy with Ms Bondi for overpromising to release a “client list” that she has since claimed never existed, saying she misspoke when referring to the list in a Fox News interview.
During a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, the attorney general allegedly confronted Mr Bongino about a NewsNation article that claimed he and Kash Patel, the FBI director, had been prevented from releasing as much information about Epstein as they would have liked.
Dan Bongino has grown increasingly unhappy with Pam Bondi – Evan Vucci/Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The pair are said to have had a “heated” argument in front of Mr Patel, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Taylor Budowich, the deputy chief of staff, during which Mr Bongino denied leaking to the press.
“Pam said her piece. Dan said his piece. It didn’t end on friendly terms,” one person briefed on the heated discussion told Axios, adding that Mr Bongino left the meeting angry.
Mr Bongino, a former US Secret Service agent turned podcast host, has come in for a hammering from Maga supporters after claiming a video taken from outside Epstein’s cell proved that no one had entered, and that he therefore took his own life.
A conspiracy theory believed by some within the Maga movement is that Epstein was murdered to prevent the names of high-profile associates being made public.
It is also rumoured that a “list” detailing these associates exists and was to be released by the Trump administration. The White House insists such a list does not exist.
Credit: Rumble / The Dan Bongino Show | Fox News
The justice department and FBI on Monday released the 11-hour video in an effort to dispel rumours that the sex offender was murdered, but Maga hardliners noticed time stamps on the video skipped from 11.58pm to midnight, leading some to suspect foul play had taken place during what has been called the “missing minute”.
The discovery of the “missing minute”, caused by a lag when the surveillance system resets each evening, was blamed internally on Mr Bongino for his oversight, insiders told Axios.
Despite the DoJ presenting it as “raw” footage, it has since been claimed the video was likely modified using a professional editing tool, according to Metadata analysis by Wired.
“The fact is, Dan was for releasing the information with the video and had no problem until he got heat online,” a senior administration official told the news outlet.
“Bongino found the video with the missing minute. He vouched for it after a ‘thorough review,’” he said, “and he thought this would end the matter. When that didn’t work, he lost his mind and ran out of DC”.
Prospect of potential sackings
The White House blow up is the clearest sign yet of turmoil within the administration over its handling of the Epstein files, and raises the prospect of potential sackings.
One Bongino supporter told Axios: “Dan is not the bad guy here. He shouldn’t take the fall.”
It comes as Maga firebrand Laura Loomer claimed Mr Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning”. He has not commented on Ms Loomer’s claims.
Ms Loomer, also wrote on X that Mr Bongino and Mr Patel were “furious” with Ms Bondi over her “lack of transparency” and called for the attorney general to be fired.
On Friday, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, sought to quell rumours of a split, writing on X that he “worked closely with Patel and Bongino on the joint FBI and DoJ memo regarding the Epstein files”.
“All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo,” he said. “The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false.”
