FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has declared that the bureau will reevaluate several "cases of potential public corruption" that seemingly stagnated under previous leadership.
Bongino, alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, has decided to either reopen or allocate "additional resources and investigative attention" to a trio of cases: the DC pipe bombing investigation, the discovery of cocaine in the previous administration's White House, and the leak of a Supreme Court case.
This resurgence of interest in past improprieties, which were seemingly overlooked during the Biden administration, suggests that the FBI's new leadership is earnestly striving to restore faith in the agency. The FBI's reputation has been severely tarnished in recent years due to its perceived politicization, alleged involvement in "election interference," its struggle to hold leftist extremists accountable, and its enthusiastic targeting of conservatives and political adversaries of the Democrats.
As reported by The Blaze, Steve Baker, a contributor to Blaze Media and investigative journalist, who has extensively probed the planting of pipe bombs near the Washington, D.C., offices of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee on Jan. 5, 2021, alongside Joseph Hanneman, has welcomed this development. However, Baker expressed some reservations about Bongino's characterization of these cases as instances of "potential public corruption," particularly in relation to the pipe bomb case.
Baker stated, "It's not public corruption if it was MAGA [behind it]; if it was Antifa; if it was BLM; if it was Oath Keepers; the Proud Boys; the 3% Militia or something like that. It's only a public corruption case if they believe that it's an inside job by Capitol Police, Metro Police, FBI, or U.S. Secret Service." The FBI, on its website, defines "public corruption" as violations of federal law by public officials at all levels of government.
Baker dismissed the notion that the framing of public corruption was due to careless wording, suggesting that Bongino likely "can't even type out a single X post without going through general counsel." He also proposed that if any of the cases had been closed, the bureau should have disclosed this and shared its findings with the public.
Baker said, "For them to say that they're reopening the case implies that the FBI closed the case, that it was not an ongoing case. Therefore, they should have told the American people that they didn't or couldn't solve it." Despite reaching out to the FBI for comment, Blaze News received no response by the time of publication.
As recently as January, the FBI indicated that the investigation into the pipe bomb case was still active. On Jan. 4, the bureau announced that the $500,000 reward for information relating to the bomber was still valid. Despite the FBI assessing over 600 tips and conducting over 1,000 interviews, according to Axios, the case remains unsolved.
The investigations into who leaked the Supreme Court's decision to pro-abortion radicals and who left cocaine in the Biden White House, while seemingly simpler cases to solve, have also left the public's suspicions unconfirmed.
On July 2, 2023, white powder was discovered near the West Executive Entrance of the Biden White House, not far from the Situation Room, by members of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service. After a field test, a firefighter with the department's hazardous material team concluded that the substance was "cocaine hydrochloride."
The U.S. Secret Service launched an investigation into how the cocaine ended up in the White House while Hunter Biden, a notorious drug user who was dismissed from the Navy Reserve for cocaine use, was visiting. The FBI's crime lab conducted "advanced fingerprint and DNA analysis" on the cocaine baggie. However, the results received by the Secret Service from the FBI were reportedly a dead-end on fingerprints and DNA. The Secret Service announced the conclusion of its probe into the matter without a suspect on July 13, 2023.
Glenn Beck, co-founder of Blaze Media, suggested in 2023 that in the cocaine case, the Secret Service and FBI were either demonstrating extreme incompetence or participating in a cover-up. Beck stated, "At some point you need to say, 'You know, you're really bad at these ongoing investigations because you've had an ongoing investigation on Hunter Biden for how many years? And you still don't know what everyone in the public knows.'"
In May 2022, an initial draft of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn was leaked a month early and then published by Politico. The high court described the leak as "one of the worst breaches of trust in its history," emphasizing that it was not "a mere misguided attempt at protest" but rather "a grave assault on the judicial process."
Gail Curley, the marshal of the court, was directed by Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate the leak. Despite the thoroughness of the court's inquiry, as attested by then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the marshal failed to identify the responsible party and admitted as much in her 2023 report.
Following the conclusion of the investigation, President Donald Trump noted on Truth Social, "The Supreme Court has just announced it is not able to find out, even with the help of our 'crack' FBI, who the leaker was on the R v Wade scandal. They'll never find out, & it's important that they do."
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito later suggested that he had an idea of who might have been responsible, but his suspicion wasn't sufficient. Alito said, according to the Wall Street Journal, "I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible, but that's different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody. It was a part of an effort to prevent the draft ... from becoming the decision of the court. And that's how it was used for those six weeks by people on the outside as part of the campaign to try to intimidate the court."
In his post on Monday, Bongino noted, "I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI." This statement suggests a renewed commitment to transparency and accountability, which could potentially restore public trust in the FBI.
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