FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino has lashed out at a New York Post columnist who first reported on a damning internal document detailing what current and former agents think of the Donald Trump–picked FBI leadership.
Miranda Devine, who also hosts the Rupert Murdoch–owned paper’s podcast Pod Force One, initially revealed the contents of the leaked 115-page report. One of the biggest bombshells was that active-duty and retired agents see Bongino as “something of a clown” and FBI Director Kash Patel as inexperienced and “in over his head.”
Those same sources warn that the federal investigative agency is a “rudderless ship” and “all f—ed up” under the reign of the two former podcast hosts, who face increasing pressure over their roles leading the FBI.
In a panicky X post on Monday complete with a glaring typo, Bongino dismissed coverage of the leaked report and labeled the New York Post columnist “Deep-State Devine.”
“Miranda loves attacking our reform agenda with gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees because she’s upset that her ‘reporting’ keeps falling apart under scrutiny,” Bongino wrote. “You can always count on Miranda for a timed hit piece when the Director and I make big changes. Miranda prefers tbe old guard. I don’t. Full steam ahead.”
Speaking to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday night, Devine denied the accusation that the sources for the damning report were part of a “deep-state cabal” targeting the Trump administration.
“I know these people, they’re patriots and they only have the best interests of the FBI in mind,” Devine said. “They asked for a six-month sort of report card on Kash Patel and Dan Bongino’s performance, and they found 80 percent of their responses were negative.
“What they hope, and what I would have hoped, is that Kash Patel and Dan Bongino would take this criticism on board, as it’s coming from Trump-aligned people. This alliance actually endorsed Trump publicly last October, saying that he had the best options for FBI reform. And so, this criticism is coming in good spirit.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Devine and the FBI for comment.
The report features a series of brutal assessments of Bongino and Patel from an alliance of FBI professionals that was first formed in 2023 during the Biden administration to complain about what it viewed as the “weaponization” of the bureau.
Current and former agents criticized both Bongino and Patel for their “arrogance” and “unfortunate obsession with social media.” One source said the pair were “spending too much time on social media and public relations.”
Patel was also called out for making “premature public remarks” during the Charlie Kirk murder investigation. In the immediate wake of the shooting, he told his 1.8 million X followers that agents had “the subject of the shooting” in custody, before later acknowledging that the individual detained had nothing to do with the attack.
Patel also attempted to take credit for the work of other agencies when the actual suspect was later arrested, according to the report, which also recounts him “yelling and swearing” at the agent in charge.
Perhaps the most embarrassing incident described in the report is when Patel refused to get off a plane during the Kirk investigation in Utah until he had an FBI jacket to wear. Agents scrambled to find him one, ultimately bringing him a jacket that belonged to a female agent. But Patel then complained that the jacket did not have the proper patches attached to the upper sleeves.
He wouldn’t leave the plane “until he had two patches to cover those areas,” according to the report. Members of an FBI SWAT team reportedly ended up removing patches from their own jackets to give to Patel.
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