Dan Bongino, a right-wing podcaster who was named the deputy director of the F.B.I. last year and resigned just nine months later, returned to podcasting on Monday.
Free from the constraints of his government role, he spoke freely about Justice Department investigations including the one into Jeffrey Epstein, addressed criticism he received from across the political spectrum and showered President Trump with praise — then briefly interviewed him.
Mr. Bongino, who for years as a podcaster had suggested that federal officials were withholding the Epstein files because they contained a list of powerful clients, said that he gained access to them when he entered the F.B.I. last year. But he discovered that the evidence he had expected to find was not there.
“I wanted to see the files, folks. I said, ‘Don’t let it go.’ I meant it,” he said. “We got elected, we looked at it. The file — what was in there was not what we thought would be in there.”
Mr. Bongino said there were “a lot of problems” with releasing the documents to the public, including confidential grand jury testimony and the presence of child sexual abuse material.
Criticism of Mr. Bongino surged — even among his fans and supporters — after the Justice Department and the F.B.I. said in July that the files contained no evidence that would lead to new charges and would not be released to the public. Only after Congress ordered them to do so did they publish millions of additional documents in December and January.
The files referenced powerful figures including Mr. Trump and many in his orbit. The Justice Department has said the files contain “untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”
On Monday’s show, Mr. Bongino cast additional doubt on some of the documents, saying that many were unverifiable and were “double or triple hearsay.”
“A lot of this stuff was clearly debunked,” he said.
Mr. Bongino, who was one of the most-streamed and most-downloaded right-wing influencers before he ended his podcast to join the F.B.I., did not directly address his reason for announcing suddenly in December that he would resign from the bureau, or his reason for returning to podcasting. In an emailed statement, Mr. Bongino declined to answer questions, writing: “We’re back.”
While interviewing Mr. Trump for about 20 minutes on Monday, the pair talked about several of the president’s favorite topics: crime rates in Washington, election fraud and immigration crackdowns. Mr. Bongino praised Mr. Trump and said that the interview had left him “a little choked up.”
Mr. Bongino concluded the interview by saying that the president had high expectations for everyone under his watch.
“Produce results or get the hell out of there,” Mr. Bongino said of Mr. Trump’s perspective.
“I’m very torn,” Mr. Trump responded. “Maybe I’d rather have you where you are.”
Mr. Bongino spent much of the rest of his show, which had more than 200,000 live viewers at its peak, addressing criticism he had faced after he left the friendly environs of his podcasting community.
He spoke on Monday about an interview he gave to “Fox & Friends” in May in which he seemed to suggest he had some regrets about taking the F.B.I. role. He had described long hours and lamented “staring at these four walls all day in D.C. by myself.”
During the show Monday, he warned that anyone in a leadership role will never be well liked. But he also said the backlash to his comments on “Fox & Friends” had prompted him to stay away from the limelight.
“Everything in this business, the opinion business, is sound bites and snapshots,” he said. He added: “It’s the exact opposite in federal law enforcement. It is not sound bites and snapshots. It is a very slow, methodical process.”
Stuart A. Thompson writes for The Times about online influence, including the people, places and institutions that shape the information we all consume.
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