Dan Bongino, the No. 2 official at the F.B.I., said on Wednesday that he would step down next month, bringing an end to his brief but tumultuous stint at the bureau, where he was known for his volcanic temper, missteps and hyperactive presence on social media.
“I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January,” Mr. Bongino wrote on social media, shortly after President Trump appeared to confirm earlier news reports that Mr. Bongino planned to step down.
Mr. Bongino, a Trump political ally with no prior experience at the F.B.I., at times struggled with the immense demands of a job that required running the day-to-day operations of the bureau — particularly his awkward efforts to square a previous embrace of conspiracy theories with F.B.I. investigations that debunked them.
Mr. Bongino, 51, had suggested he would announce his departure on Friday but accelerated his plans after Mr. Trump addressed his status, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Mr. Bongino, a Long Island native, was one of several political appointees — including Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director — installed into senior positions at the bureau, a first in the agency’s history.
He served less than a year in a post responsible for overseeing dozens of field offices around the country and world, one typically occupied by a veteran F.B.I. agent. He has suggested he would return to his previous job as a pro-Trump podcaster and social media personality.
The upheaval comes at a precarious moment for the bureau and White House. Mr. Trump and his appointees see the F.B.I., which long operated independently of White House interference, as a critical part of his retribution agenda.
He is leaving on what he believes to be a high note.
But it involves a case — the capture of a man accused of planting pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol — that also illustrated the dizzying disconnect between his promotion of conspiracy theories and the realities imposed by real-world F.B.I. investigations.
After the arrest earlier this month, Mr. Bongino appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, where the host asked him to explain his previous claim that the case was an “inside job” abetted by a federal cover-up.
“I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day I will be back in that space — but that’s not what I’m paid for now,” Mr. Bongino said.
He added: “I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
The willingness of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino to execute White House personnel directives — including firings and forced transfers without cause — alienated many current and former bureau officials, who have accused the pair of sacrificing the well-being of agents to preserve their place in the Trump pecking order.
The Trump administration has purged the bureau’s ranks of supervisors who have resisted efforts to fire agents involved in investigations related to Mr. Trump and the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Patel has upended norms by authorizing polygraph tests to determine if his subordinates had said unflattering things about him.
Mr. Bongino’s obsession with his own image, as projected through a constant stream of gung-ho social media posts, landed flat in a proud law enforcement agency where working hard and keeping a low profile has been a calling card of leadership.
In a lawsuit filed in September, the former head of the bureau’s powerful Washington field office, Steven J. Jensen, said he was taken aback by the “intense focus” that Mr. Bongino devoted to “increasing online engagement through his social media profiles in an effort to change his followers’ perception of the F.B.I.”
Mr. Jensen worried that Mr. Bongino spent more time on “creating content for his social media pages” than on F.B.I. investigations.
Mr. Bongino’s departure seemed inevitable after the White House in August hired the Missouri attorney general, Andrew Bailey, to share his job as deputy director. It was an unusual arrangement at the bureau for a job that had never been shared nor held by someone other than a veteran F.B.I. agent.
Mr. Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, fell out of favor after lambasting Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case — and alienating Ms. Bondi’s friend and ally, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.
Mr. Bongino’s departure represents a tempered victory for Ms. Bondi, who accused him in a contentious meeting over the summer of planting negative stories about her in the right-wing news media, after the Justice Department issued a memo stating that the Epstein files warranted no further investigation.
Mr. Bongino, apparently upset by the exchange, did not show up for work the next day.
After Mr. Bongino was appointed, he told F.B.I. employees that he would not act as a “partisan political figure.” But he was installed at the F.B.I. by a president who demands loyalty above all else, making his promise seem far-fetched.
Former and current agents said that Mr. Bongino failed to put his “personnel politics” aside as he promised and pushed right-wing rhetoric with his comments on social media. Even in a reduced role with less direct supervision of senior agents, he lacked the sophistication and depth of knowledge to oversee complex investigations, the agents said.
Mr. Bongino once complained that it was hard work running the country’s largest and most important law enforcement agency, and lamented having to look at four walls every day — an office — while being away from his family.
What the move means for the F.B.I. under Mr. Patel, who has drawn criticism over his lavish spending on government-funded travel and his use of F.B.I. SWAT teams to protect his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, is unclear.
Mr. Patel has recently told associates he plans to stay on at least through the 2026 midterm elections, but has acknowledged that the president could change his mind at any time.
One factor perhaps working in Mr. Patel’s favor: Mr. Trump’s top domestic policy adviser, Stephen Miller, considers Mr. Patel to be a compliant purveyor of his directives on personnel and policy matters.
The surprising announcement that Mr. Bailey had been tapped to be co-deputy director of the F.B.I. was regarded by Justice Department and bureau officials as a clear vote of no-confidence in Mr. Bongino, and to an extent, Mr. Patel.
Mr. Bailey, who has a good relationship with Ms. Bondi and Ms. Wiles, is regarded as a more conventional choice for the job, with experience overseeing a major law enforcement agency. But like Mr. Bongino, he lacks the status of having moved up through the ranks of the bureau, long a prerequisite for the job.
Late last year, Mr. Trump interviewed Mr. Bailey for the F.B.I. director’s job but was unimpressed and opted for Mr. Patel — who once wrote a children’s book portraying him as a king.
Some officials expressed astonishment that Mr. Bongino, who had promoted conspiracy theories about Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier, before swatting them down in his official role, lasted this long.
At the F.B.I., he pined for his well-paid days as a podcast host, and seemed eager to maintain good standing among the right-wing influencers who cheered on his appointment.
Mr. Bongino took public responsibility for the Epstein investigation, diverting dozens of agents to examine documents and video despite previous investigations that had concluded there was no foul play in Mr. Epstein’s death.
The findings disputed the baseless contention — echoed by Mr. Bongino and Mr. Patel before they joined the F.B.I. — that the government had suppressed a list of Mr. Epstein’s sex trafficking clients.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.
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