Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino Says He Fears Federal Prison

Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino has revealed that he lives in fear after attempting to make a change within the FBI.

Bongino, who stepped down from his role at the FBI in January, said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he was shocked by how many “snakes” were within the FBI ranks and added that he believes those same rogue agents will come after him.

The former deputy director also shared he fears he will be thrown in Federal prison if Republicans are unable to retain the Presidency in 2028.

Fox News provided quotes from Bongino’s exclusive interview with Hannity:

Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino issued a chilling warning, saying he lives in fear of “thugs” being sent to his home as retribution for his efforts to reform the FBI.

Speaking on an episode of the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast, Bongino said what he witnessed during his tenure inside the bureau shocked him to the core and left him “terrified.”

“I’m scared, man,” Bongino told Hannity. “I know what I did. And I’m proud of my work. And I am proud of what me and Kash [Patel] accomplished in the past year.” He added that he thinks every day “they’re going to come for me.”

Bongino joined the FBI in March 2025 and left nearly a year later in January 2026. At the time of his appointment, he said his goal was to restore an agency that was “transparent, accountable and committed to the rule of law.” He now says his service has made him a target.

The former deputy director said he faced internal resistance, including what he described as “snakes” leaking sensitive information to the media. He said he uncovered what he described as a “mother lode” of “Russiagate” files, which he claims were found in FBI burn bags.

Bongino said his knowledge of the files makes him wary of the future. He told Hannity he fears political rivals will use lawfare to put him in “federal prison” as a means of silencing him.

“It comes to my mind every day,” he said. “I live like this the rest of my life because I know how they are.”

He said he brought in an outside attorney to ensure that everything he and Patel did was “by the book.”

“It doesn’t matter. They’ll rewrite the book just like they did for President Trump,” Bongino said, referring to the charges brought against President Trump after he left the White House.

Here’s a clip of the interview:

Dan Bongino recently joined Sean Hannity to share a sobering reality: he knows his life could be in danger. When truth-tellers start facing these kinds of threats, it's a wake-up call for the entire country. pic.twitter.com/RseipnMrTb

— Jason American Patriot™ (@TruthJasonLee) April 28, 2026

The Hill shared how Bongino would catch “snakes” among the FBI ranks:

Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, said on a podcast released Tuesday that he would occasionally spread false information to identify “snakes” within the agency that he believed were leaking details to the media.

Bongino told Sean Hannity on the Fox News host’s podcast “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” that he encountered two distinct groups when he first began working for the agency, one of which he labeled the “good FBI” consisting of agents who investigated crimes against children and white-collar crimes.

“And then you had this other FBI which were — which was populated with, to say, unfortunately, snakes is being nice,” he told Hannity. “And here’s the problem, Sean. It wasn’t always obvious which FBI they were in.”

He said it took some time for him and FBI Director Kash Patel to figure out whether individual agents were “part of the good FBI or the bad FBI,” and they sometimes relied on outside sources for help.

“Sometimes they would get it wrong too,” Bongino said. “It happened a couple times where they’d say ‘Oh, you can trust John Smith,’ right? And you trust John Smith, and then a week later, you see like a leak in the media, and you’d be like, I’m pretty sure that came from John Smith.”

Bongino said he decided to “start messing with people” after that, offering “innocuous” details about his whereabouts and schedule to flush out supposed leakers whom he could then confront if the story later appeared in the headlines.

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“So, it was like we would play this — we had to play this little game,” he said.

The operation of the FBI has been routinely criticized under Patel’s leadership, with a recent profile in The Atlantic detailing an alleged pattern of drinking, unexplained absences and paranoia over losing his job. Patel sued the magazine for defamation in response.

Watch the full interview below: