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Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, said on a podcast released Tuesday that he would occasionally spread false information to identify \u201csnakes\u201d within the agency that he believed were leaking details to the media.<\/p>\n
Bongino told Sean Hannity on the Fox News host\u2019s podcast \u201cHang Out with Sean Hannity\u201d that he encountered two distinct groups when he first began working for the agency, one of which he labeled the \u201cgood FBI\u201d consisting of agents who investigated crimes against children and white-collar crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you had this other FBI which were \u2014 which was populated with, to say, unfortunately, snakes is being nice,\u201d he told Hannity. \u201cAnd here\u2019s the problem, Sean. It wasn\u2019t always obvious which FBI they were in.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it took some time for him and FBI Director Kash Patel to figure out whether individual agents were \u201cpart of the good FBI or the bad FBI,\u201d and they sometimes relied on outside sources for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they would get it wrong too,\u201d Bongino said. \u201cIt happened a couple times where they\u2019d say \u2018Oh, you can trust John Smith,\u2019 right? And you trust John Smith, and then a week later, you see like a leak in the media, and you\u2019d be like, I\u2019m pretty sure that came from John Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bongino said he decided to \u201cstart messing with people\u201d after that, offering \u201cinnocuous\u201d details about his whereabouts and schedule to flush out supposed leakers whom he could then confront if the story later appeared in the headlines. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it was like we would play this \u2014 we had to play this little game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The operation of the FBI has been routinely criticized under Patel\u2019s leadership, with a recent profile in The Atlantic detailing an alleged pattern of drinking, unexplained absences and paranoia over losing his job. Patel sued the magazine for defamation in response.<\/p>\n
Bongino, who left the bureau in January amid a reported dispute with former Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein files, also faced his share of criticism during his nearly one year of service.<\/p>\n
He and Patel were accused by active-duty and retired FBI agents and analysts in a 115-page report\u00a0released in December of \u201cspending too much time on social media and public relations.\u201d One source also described Bongino as \u201csomething of a clown\u201d in the report.<\/p>\n
About a month after stepping down from the FBI, Bongino emerged back into public view with the relaunch of his daily two-hour talk show on the Rumble video platform. He also returned as a Fox News contributor, making his first appearance back on the network on Hannity\u2019s show. <\/p>\n
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