FBI deputy director Daniel Bongino announced on social media that he will be leaving the FBI in January — a departure that was first reported by the New York Sun earlier this week. 

“I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose,” Mr. Bongino wrote on X on Wednesday. “Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you.”

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump alluded to Mr. Bongino’s departure, telling reporters that “I think he wants to go back to his show. “

“Dan did a great job,” Mr. Trump added.

Last week, Mr. Bongino, a firebrand MAGA podcaster with no prior FBI experience, had informed several special agents in charge that he would be stepping down soon and had cleared out his Washington office, FBI insiders told the Sun. 

In February, Mr. Bongino said he was at home watching TV when he got a call from Mr. Trump asking him to serve as the FBI’s second-in-command.

“I got a call from the president, and he couldn’t have been nicer, and obviously, keep the contents of it between us, but I think you get the gist about what it was about and I kind of broke down a bit,” Mr. Bongino said on “The Dan Bongino” podcast in February. “This is now real.”

Mr. Bongino is expected to be replaced by FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey, who was regarded as an effective, if not highly partisan, former attorney general in Missouri.

Despite also not having any prior FBI experience, Mr. Bailey came to the job in September with the pre-determination to eventually become the next director, an FBI insider tells the Sun. He arrived at the FBI with his own team of people, insiders say, and has since managed to stay out of the spotlight that has hounded Mr. Patel in recent weeks.

Unlike Mr. Patel, who has been catching grief for appearing on “The Katie Miller Podcast” as his agency was in the midst of a manhunt for the Brown University shooter, Mr. Bailey has been a silent mover behind the scenes. 

Last week, Mr. Bailey was part of a U.S. delegation that joined the attorney general, Pam Bondi, during her trip to Rome to attend the Palermo Protocol Conference on human trafficking.

Throughout his brief time in the FBI, Bongino has overseen the investigations that he once devoted considerable airtime to on his “Dan Bongino Show” podcast, where he regularly floated theories that painted the Deep State as the secret culprit. Once he was on the inside, Mr. Bongino publicly debunked many of the theories he had previously espoused as a media personality.

Earlier this month, the FBI announced the arrest of 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. for placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters the night before the January 6th Capitol riots. As a podcaster, Mr. Bongino accused the Biden-era FBI of a “massive cover-up” in its handling of the pipe bomb investigation, even speculating that it was an “inside job” by the FBI.

Following Mr. Cole’s arrest, Mr. Bongino told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he previously floated those conspiracy theories as he was “paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions.” 

“That’s clear, and one day I’ll be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts,” Mr. Bongino told Mr. Hannity. 

In July, Mr. Bongino reportedly clashed with Ms. Bondi during a contentious White House meeting over the Justice Department’s rollout of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation memo, which concluded that the disgraced financier’s 2019 death was a suicide. Before joining the FBI, Mr. Bongino had claimed Epstein was murdered by Deep State actors to protect powerful elites.

The Justice Department is facing a December 19 deadline to release a tranche of its Epstein records, as mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

During a May appearance on “Fox and Friends,” a visibly dejected Mr. Bongino said he “gave up everything” for a highly demanding FBI job that was keeping him away from his wife.

“I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., by myself,” he said.

Then, in a damning report from the National Alliance of Retired and Active-Duty FBI Special Agents and Analysts said Mr. Bongino lacked a basic understanding of the law enforcement agency, with one anonymous participant describing him as “something of a clown.”

The report added that “it was a mistake not to appoint a career FBI Special Agent to the position of FBI Deputy Director” who had “a better understanding of the workings of the FBI.”

In November, Mr. Bongino’s chief of staff for nine months, Jimmy Paul, was named the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office.