Dan Bongino, a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned right-wing pundit and podcaster, will be the next deputy director of the F.B.I., President Trump said on Sunday night. Mr. Trump, making the announcement on his social media site, said the newly installed F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, had named Mr. Bongino to the No. 2 post at the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be installed at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence. The F.B.I. did not respond to a request for a comment. In the past, F.B.I. directors have selected senior agents with extensive experience to essentially run the bureau’s operations, a complex and grueling job that requires working closely with foreign partners and navigating sensitive investigations. The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from that practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people and a budget of about $11 billion. The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leadership pair in the history of a bureau typically insulated from White House interference. “My entire life right now is about owning the libs,” Mr. Bongino said in 2018. He has also echoed a popular grievance among the far right denouncing the so-called deep state. Mr. Bongino’s ascension comes at a time of enormous upheaval at the agency as the Justice Department has pushed out some senior executives who, collectively, have decades of experience running the different divisions of the bureau. It is unclear what will happen to the interim leaders, Brian Driscoll and Robert C. Kissane, who served as the acting director and acting deputy director until Mr. Patel’s confirmation. Their initial refusal to accede to the Justice Department’s demand for the names of bureau personnel who investigated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, made them well-liked internally, willing, in the view of many inside the bureau, to stand up to what was perceived as political interference. Many had hoped the two would remain in Washington to help Mr. Patel run the F.B.I. The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from the practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people and a budget of about $11 billion.
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