Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino is finally pulling back the curtain on what he says shocked him to his core during his time inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to WND, Bongino first set off a political firestorm in July when he posted a cryptic message on X about the state of federal law enforcement and intelligence. The Director and I are committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations. It is a priority for us, he wrote, hinting at deep internal concerns about how the nations most powerful investigative agencies were being used.
He then added a far more ominous note that has fueled speculation for months. But what I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this. Ill never be the same after learning what Ive learned.
That post quickly went viral, racking up more than 20 million views as Americans across the political spectrum demanded to know what, exactly, had rattled a veteran of federal law enforcement. Bongino, who left the bureau on Jan. 4 and is now a private citizen, finally chose to elaborate this week, tying his alarm directly to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBIs counterintelligence operation targeting Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign over debunked claims of Russian collusion.
It was basically about Crossfire. I was just reading some stuff about Crossfire, Bongino told The Vince Coglianese Show on Tuesday, explaining that the details of the probe left him stunned. And I was blown away I lived in this kind of tiny apartment in D.C., And Im sitting there and Im thinking to myself, I couldnt believe it happened here. You know, Vince, like having been a Secret Service agent, a police officer, and I hadnt been in the FBI role that long, but it had been a few months.
From Bonginos perspective, the scandal was not merely about flawed procedures but about human failure at the highest levels of government. I just thought, gosh, these guardrails just broke down because of people. People are guardrails, not robots And I was just stunned at how many people just let this just the incredibly poor decision-making, he continued, underscoring the danger when partisan zeal overrides professional duty.
The former deputy director described a moment of profound disillusionment as he processed what he had learned about the Trump-Russia investigation. It blew my mind I got up the next day and I just fired that out I was really shaken by the whole thing, how these guardrails broke down so quickly. It was astonishing. And I was oh boy. Even now talking about it, I just remember that feeling. Like, oh my gosh, did this really happen? Yeah, thats what that was about.
Not everyone has been sympathetic, with some critics accusing Bongino of walking away instead of fighting from the inside. Among the online reactions were barbed comments such as, So shocked that he quit before doing anything about it, and, Not sure if Dan knew this, but he would have had more opportunity to bring those to people to account as as FBI deputy director than he will podcasting for 2 hours 5 days a week.
Bongino, who commands an audience of more than 7 million followers on X, is now channeling his concerns into media rather than bureaucracy. He is preparing to launch a new version of The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble, scheduled to air weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time beginning Feb. 2, giving him a direct platform to challenge what many conservatives see as an entrenched, left-leaning establishment.
On Tuesday, he also took aim at one of the most powerful symbols of that establishment, the New York Times, accusing it of obsessively targeting him. The NY Times has a boiling-bunny-like obsession with me. Theyre averaging a few stories a week to feed their lemmings. They run the same play over and over and they wonder why they keep losing the game, he said, casting the paper as a partisan actor rather than a neutral watchdog.
Bongino went further, blasting the Times for its role in amplifying the Trump-Russia narrative that underpinned Crossfire Hurricane and years of political turmoil. He branded it a media enterprise that viciously propagated the most destructive political hoax in American history, adding: You guys are jokers, relying on people we likely removed for misfeasance or malfeasance, to feed your ignorant audience the nonsense gruel they crave.
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