FBI Director Dan Bongino has revealed that the bureau is implementing “important cultural changes” since his and Director Kash Patel’s arrival.
“The accountability process is ongoing as we move disciplined, and focused, leaders into critical positions in the field. And, we are removing employees who have violated their oaths, and those who invited partisanship into the workplace. The process is ongoing, and will not stop,” Bongino wrote in a post on X.
“Yes, as reported, we are making changes to the hiring process, the physical fitness requirements, and we are also looking at ways to enhance our defensive tactics training,” he added.
Bongino said he and Patel said they want the FBI agent component of the bureau to have the “physical skill set to de-escalate when necessary,” particularly for “when encounters can quickly turn into life or death scenarios.”
“We are also working on an enhanced compliance process to ensure many of the mistakes of the past are never repeated,” Bongino wrote on X.
“Both the Director and I have had multiple meetings on this topic and we are working on substantive changes to current procedures. We must be held accountable, both internally to management, and externally to the people we work for, given the gravity of our responsibilities,” he added.
Patel said last week that “the FBI concealed investigations for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,” as he pushes for more transparency within the bureau in an effort to rebuild trust among Americans.
Patel made his remarks alongside Bongino in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo last month, noting further that former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, decided on his own not to pursue any charges against the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential contender.
“(The previous) FBI usurped the constitutional responsibilities held by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General,” Patel said, adding, “Comey decided for himself what cases to prosecute and what not to.”
Patel specifically referenced Clinton’s email scandal ahead of the 2016 election — before she helped concoct the ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ hoax in an effort to refocus attention away from herself.
“If you don’t believe me, look at the video record,” Patel said, adding that Comey “intentionally omitted investigation information or distorted prosecution decisions during his tenure as FBI Director.”
During the height of the campaign season in the summer of 2016, Comey did a press conference to announce that, while the FBI had discovered what many felt were prosecutorial crimes involving Clinton’s efforts to conceal emails from investigators, “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges.
Then, under pressure and just ten days before the election, he reopened the investigation into the email scandal, alleging that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had compromised national security by using a personal email server during her time as Secretary of State. Clinton later pointed to the timing of this renewed probe as a key factor in her election loss.
Patel also discussed the subsequent investigation into Trump’s alleged Russia ties, which turned out to be a fabrication.
“New details have been uncovered” regarding that probe, Patel said, adding that “Comey maliciously and brutally distorted the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and lied to the American people.”
“He concealed relevant documents and hid them in places that cannot be found,” Patel added.
Bongino elaborated on that during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Thursday.
The deputy director said that his office uncovered evidence from Comey’s tenure in a room that had been “hidden from us,” as the bureau has been forced to reallocate resources amid ongoing internal investigations.
“I wouldn’t call it hidden, but hidden from us at least and not mentioned to us, and then we found stuff in there and a lot of it’s from the Comey-era, and we are working our damndest right now to declassify,” Bongino told Fox News.