The selection of right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino for a senior FBI role hammers home that President Donald Trump is eliminating the guardrai
Matt Gertz at MMFA:
The selection of right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino for a senior FBI role hammers home that President Donald Trump is eliminating the guardrails that prevented right-wing conspiracy theories becoming criminal prosecutions during his first term. It also shovels more dirt on the farcical idea that Trump and his allies want depoliticized law enforcement. A regular pattern played out over Trumpâs first term as the president sought to wield federal law enforcement as an extension of his will. Right-wing conspiracy theorists, typically led by Trump adviser and Fox News host Sean Hannity, would offer bogus claims that Trumpâs foes had committed crimes. Then Trump, an inveterate Fox viewer, would publicly or privately demand investigations and often get them. But the probes would ultimately fall apart without significant charges after Trumpâs own appointees â Republicans who nonetheless evinced some semblance of independence and professionalism â figured out there was nothing to them.
Trumpâs second-term selections are intended to eliminate the disruptions caused by appointees with a higher priority than carrying out the presidentâs whims. They are sycophants who are zealously loyal to the president and some either previously worked as his personal lawyers or have long public records of calling for criminal investigations of his foes. Trump said on Sunday that Bongino, who embarked on a career as a right-wing media commentator after serving in the New York Police Department and U.S. Secret Service and losing several congressional campaigns, will serve as deputy director of the FBI. Bongino worked as a Fox contributor and host before leaving in 2023 to focus on his eponymous podcast, which streams on Rumble and airs on Westwood One radio stations.Â
In announcing Bonginoâs new role, Trump said the podcaster would help restore âFairnessâ to the justice system. But Bongino is one of the last people youâd select for such a role if your intention was really to run a nonpartisan bureau: He is an inflammatory partisan who has declared that âowning the libsâ is âmy entire life right nowâ because they are âpure unadulterated evil" and has fawned over Trump as âan apex predatorâ and âthe lion king.â Bongino gained influence and an audience during Trumpâs first term specifically because of his willingness to issue florid denunciations of special counsel Robert Muellerâs probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. On his NRATV show and in frequent guest appearances on Fox (particularly on Trumpâs beloved Fox & Friends and on Hannityâs show), Bongino described Muellerâs probe as âan obvious frame job and set-upâ that is âdesigned to cover up for the misdeeds of the Obama administrationâ and called for the special counselâs firing.Â
[...] Itâs unlikely Bongino will be hindered by the higher-ups Trump has installed. Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, said in a 2023 interview that a second Trump term would target âthe conspirators, not just in government but in the mediaâ who had âlied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.â The appendix of Patelâs 2023 book ânames more than 50 current or former US officials that he claims are âmembers of the Executive Branch deep state,â which he describes as a âdangerous threat to democracy,ââ in what has been frequently referred to as an âenemies list.â At the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi previously parlayed frequent Fox appearances defending Trump into a post on his first impeachment legal defense team. Her acting deputy, Emil Bove, previously represented Trump in state and federal prosecutions.  Meanwhile, Ed Martin, who will oversee major cases in the District of Columbia as its acting U.S. attorney, âwas an organizer in the âStop The Stealâ movement that falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Trumpâ and then âworked as a defense attorney for some people charged in the January 6 riot.âÂ
Donald Trump taps far-right podcast host and 3x-failed Congressional candidate Dan Bongino to serve as deputy director for the FBI that is headed up by fellow far-right hack Kash Patel. The pick of Bongino for this role reinforces the politicization of the agency to serve its MAGA agenda.
