1. Daniel John Bongino was born on December4,1974 and is an American government official, conservative political commentator, radio host, and former law enforcement officer who has served as the 20th deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2025.
On February 23,2025, President Donald Trump announced that Dan Bongino had been named the next deputy director of the FBI.
Dan Bongino was born and raised in Queens, New York City.
Dan Bongino graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School, a Catholic all-male high school in Jamaica, Queens, in 1992.
Dan Bongino attended Queens College, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology.
Dan Bongino earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Pennsylvania State University.
Dan Bongino worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department from 1995 to 1999.
Dan Bongino joined the United States Secret Service in 1999 as a special agent.
Dan Bongino remained on protective duty after Barack Obama became president, leaving in May 2011 to run for the US Senate.
Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Dan Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme.
Dan Bongino's work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges.
Dan Bongino was criticized by former colleagues at the Secret Service for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House.
Dan Bongino rejected birtherism, the claim that President Obama was born outside the United States.
Dan Bongino has been a radio host and commentator on both local and national programs.
Dan Bongino has guest-hosted The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show and has filled in on WMAL-FM in Washington, DC, and WBAL in Baltimore.
Dan Bongino was a paid contributor to NRATV until December 2018.
Dan Bongino guest-hosted Hannity on Fox News in December 2018.
In December 2019, Dan Bongino launched the Dan Bongino Report as an alternative to the Drudge Report.
Dan Bongino criticized the Drudge Report's founder, Matt Drudge, for allegedly shifting away from supporting Donald Trump.
In March 2021, Cumulus Media signed Dan Bongino to replace The Rush Limbaugh Show on its talk radio stations while continuing to carry his one-hour podcast.
In January 2022, YouTube permanently banned Dan Bongino for attempting to circumvent a temporary suspension related to a video questioning the efficacy of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On December 11,2022, Dan Bongino announced plans to end his Cumulus radio show at the conclusion of his contract.
On October 19,2021, Dan Bongino said that he opposed corporate vaccine mandates, although he said he was vaccinated.
Brian Rosenwald, a talk radio historian, believed Dan Bongino's request was never much of an ultimatum, seeing little reason for Cumulus or its host to sever ties.
Dan Bongino ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in Maryland in 2012.
Dan Bongino won the Republican primary on April 3,2012, with 33.8 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates.
Dan Bongino ran for the US House of Representatives seat from Maryland's 6th congressional district in the 2014 election against incumbent Democrat John Delaney.
Dan Bongino carried four of the district's five counties, but had a 20,500-vote deficit in the district's share of Montgomery County in the outer suburbs of Washington.
However, in June 2016, Dan Bongino declared that he would seek the Republican nomination for Florida's 19th congressional district.
Dan Bongino faced Chauncey Goss, a Sanibel city councilman who sought the seat in 2012, and Francis Rooney, a businessman and former United States ambassador to the Holy See, in the primary.
Dan Bongino placed third in the August 2016 primary, losing the nomination to Rooney.
On February 23,2025, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Dan Bongino would be the next deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Dan Bongino has called the investigation of possible Trump-Russia collusion a "total scam", and is a proponent of the Spygate conspiracy theory.
Dan Bongino is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American's faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the top of the FBI.
In May 2018, after Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy and some conservative legal experts challenged Trump's claims that the FBI had spied on his 2016 presidential campaign, Dan Bongino claimed Gowdy had been "fooled" by the Department of Justice.
Dan Bongino reportedly told the House Judiciary Committee during hearings on police brutality that efforts to reduce the funding of police departments were an "abomination" that should be dropped "before someone gets hurt".
Dan Bongino was listed among the top five "superspreaders of election misinformation" by the global activist group Avaaz.
Dan Bongino was a strong critic of face mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that face masks are largely ineffective and deriding them as "face diapers" on occasion.
Dan Bongino has authored multiple books related to his career in law enforcement, politics, and support for Donald Trump.
In 2019, Bongino published Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J Trump, which promotes the Spygate conspiracy theory, alleging improper surveillance of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
Dan Bongino is married to Paula Andrea, nee Martinez, who was born in Colombia.
Dan Bongino lived in Severna Park, Maryland, from 2002 until 2015, when he relocated to Palm City, Florida.
Dan Bongino announced in June 2020 that he had purchased an "ownership stake" of unspecified value in Parler, an alternative social media platform.
On September 23,2020, Dan Bongino announced that a seven-centimeter tumor had been found in his throat.
Dan Bongino said he would receive treatment in the future.