A deeply embarrassing leaked report has exposed the dramatic divide in the FBI as the Trump administration insists FBI Director Kash Patel’s job is not at stake.
The bureau’s second in command on Monday pushed back on the brutal internal assessment of the bureau’s leadership and suggested it was simply the work of disgruntled employees.
Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Monday claimed “a LOT of people are very upset at the changes and reforms we’ve made at the FBI. They will do anything to revert to the old ways of doing things.”
He accused them of leaking “gossipy nonsense to media outlets and ‘journalists’ with a clear agenda.”
But the report painted a grim picture within the premier federal investigative agency and the performance of its current top brass.
A LOT of people are very upset at the changes and reforms we’ve made at the FBI.
They will do anything to revert to the old ways of doing things. So they leak gossipy nonsense to media outlets and “journalists” with a clear agenda, and they ignore the historic results and the…— Dan Bongino (@FBIDDBongino) December 1, 2025
The 115-page report was put together by a group of active-duty and retired agents and analysts for the House and Senate Judiciary Committees as a “pulse check” on the first six months of Patel’s tenure in the top job.
The blistering assessment slammed the FBI under Patel’s leadership as “dismal”, “all f—ed up,” and a “rudderless ship,” and concluded the director is “in over his head.”
It also included a bruising observation that Bongino is “something of a clown.”
The report, first leaked to the New York Post, spread like wildfire with a series of damaging headlines across numerous publications and has sparked debate over whether the inexperienced FBI director is hurting rather than helping the Trump administration and the president.
One anecdote, reportedly from a source who served for decades in the FBI, claimed that Patel refused to step off a plane until he had an FBI raid jacket, as agents were investigating the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
It eventually led Patel to borrow a jacket belonging to a female agent.
After he complained about the empty spaces on the jacket, agents took off their own patches to cover the empty Velcro parts, according to the report.
While the report documented a series of incidents and criticism of Patel and Bongino, it also included a message directly to leadership and recommendations.
It told them to listen to their people and suggested they redeploy bureau climate surveys.
But Bongino’s defensive response indicated a completely different takeaway
“Judge the results. I work for you, not for headlines,” he wrote on X. “Thanks for your support during my time in the FBI, I really appreciate it.”
The timing of the report’s leak also raised further questions about its intended goal.
Last week, President Donald Trump insisted Patel was doing a “great job,” and the White House rejected that the president was considering removing Patel.
It came after an MS NOW report said the president and top aides had become frustrated with the unflattering headlines about the FBI director.
While the leaked report by current and former agents was scathing of current FBI leadership, it was not devoid of criticisms of past directors.
It also noted so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome” remains within the “left-leaning factions” within the FBI and personnel “openly express disdain” for the president.
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