FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino both overlook key issues. I’ll explain after a review of this update from Deputy FBI Director Bongino (as shared on his Twitter Account):
“In the best interests of openness and transparency I’ll be posting regular information updates on this account.
-The Director and I are working through many of the transparency issues. We are focused on getting this done the right way, and as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many of these cases involve victims, both young and old, who we will not allow to be re-victimized by a rushed and sloppy effort.
-We are engaging with all of our personnel on transparency, while simultaneously dealing with a number of serious threats to the Homeland, our children, our economy, and our infrastructure. We absolutely cannot afford to miss any threats in those spaces. Multi-tasking isn’t an option here.
-I am well aware of some of the early concerns expressed on social media about the speed of change. I understand. But I’ll state again, if you think I upended my prior job and lifestyle to take a vacation in FBI headquarters, then I can’t help you. You’ve already decided, despite logic and reason, that all is lost. It is not. Not even close. Because you don’t see things happening in live time, does not mean change isn’t happening. Not even close. You will see results, and not every result will please everyone, but you will absolutely see results. Just watch.
-God bless America, and all those who defend Her.
-Dan” (source)
Does this explain the FBI delay in executing an immediate presidential directive? Of course not.
Here’s the problem.
Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both fail to understand the severity of the compromise underneath them. Hence the “95% honorable” quote by Patel recently (interview with Gowdy).
♦ The core issue is that institutional corruption is the status of the FBI. That is challenging to deal with and simply cannot be addressed (in any reasonable timeframe, or effect) from the top of the leadership pyramid.
The various downstream field offices of the same institution (there are hundreds) will keep Patel/Bongino flush with busy work and positive investigative outcomes for them to announce on television. [see VA recently] That approach purposefully satiates a reviewing audience yet leaves the process under them without oversight.
Corrupt FBI officials continue operations as needed (influence selling, evidence burying, pay-to-play investigative outcomes, DC monitoring, money laundering, trafficking, drugs and generally willful blindness to their outside group partners) and simultaneously push specific attention-grabbing info up the ladder toward leadership offices in DC.
[As decades of top-down corruption took over, it slowly permeated the field offices. Most of the really good FBI officials; those who did not want to follow a path paved with the need to join the internal corruption; took up FBI positions in foreign countries. The good guys, the SMEs are overseas now, having long left the domestic rank and vile behind them.]
Kash Patel and Dan Bongino would likely make excellent FBI special operation compliance officers and internal auditors. That’s where the real impact can be delivered [think Elliot Ness approach].
However, as leaders of the institution, the function of their role – as outwardly prestigious as it might seem, essentially isolates them with busy work. They must assign the role of compliance and audit review below them, to the same internal silo operators who have previously been identified as working within a corrupted institution.
You might note that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noticed this need very quickly, because he was/is a subject matter expert in large institutional leadership. Bessent has experience, Patel and Bongino do not.
Secretary Bessent hired/promoted/moved the IRS whistleblowers into strategic position; to become the heads of an internal compliance and audit team, reporting almost exclusively to Bessent himself.
Bongino and Patel would have been good in similar roles within the FBI organization. However, as heads of the agency they can affect very little operational change. Yes, they can steer the ship, but it is the chief engineer who determines the speed of the vessel. The mechanics within the FBI will simply control the speed and wait out the leadership.
Kash and Dan will then play a long game of whac-a-mole, removing each identified agent stalling as they are discovered. This will take more years than they have.
Contrast that FBI approach (Patel, saying everyone is awesome) with Treasury (Bessent, saying there’s an institutional problem here), and you will understand the visible absence of accountability.
♦ The issue is not Patel or Bongino’s intent or motivation. The problem is their ability.
So far, the duo has not publicly admitted the severity of the corruption they sit atop; let alone announce a plan to deal with it. Ergo the intellectually honest persons who understand the silo operations, only expect soundbites and pretenses.
Or, think of the problem like President Trump and Elon Musk (DOGE) to the total executive branch. President Trump is the tip-top of the silo. Elon Musk and DOGE are the compliance/audit officers, reviewing each agency – taking action and reporting back to the principal, President Trump.
Both President Trump and Elon Musk are familiar leading massive organizations (high competence, high motivation). However, even with their incredible large institutional skillset, both Trump and Musk need to break down the responsibilities using DOGE. Musk hires highly competent highly motivated DOGE members to do the actual compliance and audits.
Again, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino do not possess the same executive leadership skills (they are low competence, high motivation). The pair of FBI directors need high-direction and high-support to overcome their competency challenge.
If the institutional corruption within the FBI was being addressed, we would not need to be told the institutional corruption within the FBI was being addressed. We would be able to visibly see it.
Ex. If Treasury was saying 95% of IRS employees were honorable and good, Secretary Bessent would not be removing tens-of-thousands of IRS agents.
The FBI reportedly has around 48,000 agents/employees.
Step one begins as President Trump, Elon Musk and Scott Bessent each noted. First, admitting there’s an institutional problem. Patel and Bongino are denying they have an institutional problem.
I/We want to see Kash Patel and Dan Bongino succeed. However, it takes large system executive leadership skills to execute any effective reform strategy. Patel and Bongino would be excellent compliance officers, unfortunately that’s not the role they have been assigned to.
That’s the problem.
The US Constitution makes no provision for a federal police force. Period. End of story.
E X A C T L Y!
Get rid of it…. root and branch.
“The US Constitution”, like all formal agreements, is just a piece of paper unless it is followed and/or enforced.
In other words, like a paper tiger, the US Constitution has no teeth and consequently does NOT offer the kind of protection that some seemingly earnest but dangerously reality disconnected Americans imagine.
And there it is.
“The Constitution is just a piece of paper.”
Proof you are not American.
Stupid lecture bot.
Both are fool’s and megalomaniacs, as is Bondi. Patel is a liar.
All I know is that Bongino is a blowhard ex cop and Bondi is a fame ‘hore.
You and Sally share the same stall? Gold diggers. 👀👆🏽😏
Just passing through ehh! Keep moving and passing gas elsewhere. 👀🤨
😍
Every day people appear to prey on those who have agreed to join President Trump in what Teddy Roosevelt, in his famous speech, referred to as “The Arena”.
If they fail, they all realize that they and everyone they love will be targeted for destruction.
Then, as Elon observed, if they fail, this will ultimately be every Americans fate and eventually the fate of humanity.
Dunning-Kruger syndrome, inflated by the adulation of the populist swell against biden that they played with their media presence in the run up to Jan 2025.
Problems for DJT – Bondi, Patel, Bongino. Hope he notices.
Thank you, Sundance. Trump is blowing it again. He learned a lot since 2016 but he didn’t learn enough. 😞
“He learned a lot since 2016 but he didn’t learn enough”.
President Trump learned enough to react by praying for Gods grace while continuing to be Save America MAGA Mission focused and moving forward.
Hopefully those who are still haven’t learned enough to resist I-Know-Betters bait to sit and criticize rather than pitch in to help out WILL learn to do so before its too late.
Watching Trump’s long-term strategy unfold reminds me that you wait til the last horse is in the corral before you shut the gate
The rollout is fascinating….FBI no longer vetting security clearances…Lisa Monaco kept hers UNTIL 2 WEEKS AGO but 17 IG’s fired over 2 months back….the SIGNAL app debacle as CISA gets a DOGE colonoscopy…Elon goes to Wisconsin at PRECISELY the same time DOGE, with great fanfare, connected illegal alien entitlement fraud with ELECTION FRAUD….NYT having to give up the game since CIA’s USAID laundromat “utilities” CUT OFF…every bit of this looks coordinated while Trump’s killing it with optics
When it comes down to it, stopping systemic fraud in the Federal government requires producing receipts AND demonstrating massive criminality IN REAL TIME…just watch Jessica Tarlov on “The Five” defend the system protecting itself from DOGE to fully understand WHY Elon went to Wisconsin….that huge sealed case over 2020 election fraud doesn’t get Shimel elected, but exposing 400,000 illegals racking entitlements AND TRACKING THEIR VOTES DURING THE COUNT is the strategy necessary to finally clean this crap up for good
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/breaking-secret-service-refused-respond-insider-threat-agency/
https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1906890456853627376
Perhaps part of the concern is the phenomenal progress of the BOGE team inspite of the district court harassment. That has been exciting and great progress. This article highlights the inertia in the previous gubermint administrations, starting even back with Billy and Georgie, and significantly expanding under barack. IMESHO, an important part of the strategy should be to squeeze the lower level players so that they need to squeal on the “big pigs”. There is much work to be done about the 2020 election integrity in several key states, and to investigate and prosecute illegal funding to particular NGOs. Dan and Kash also navigate the treachery of leakers and subversive elements in their agencies.
Again, excellent work by Sundance!
Remember Trump is in his own silo. We have no idea what he thinks or believes. And we have no idea how new information can be routed to Trump.
One encouraging tidbit is that the chief of staff says they believe they have 18 months to finish the job.
Bondi, Patel, and Kash are operating in slow motion, if at all.
They should put me in charge of the FBI; I would have the entire stable fully cleaned out in 120 days. I would start by firing half of all the employees who are not active field agents with approved open cases
“I would”
Hopefully, even though its a fantasy scenario, these actions would only be done, IF your boss, President Trump, not only wanted this to be done
but wanted it to be done in that time frame.
If they haven’t fired thousands of dirty agents yet that means they never will.
The first thing a new leader must do when taking over a broken, corrupt organization is to immediately start firing people. Don’t wait to be sure. Fire some first. Even firing some good people is better than not firing enough bad people. Good people can be rehired. Bad people left in place will burrow in deeper and make themselves untouchable.
You might think you should take some time to assess the situation first, get more information, size up who can be trusted and who cannot. But that is a trap. The crooks are sizing you up too and there are more of them than there are of you. They know the system, you don’t. They know where the fraud is hiding, you don’t. If you do not immediately start dramatic actions into motion they will never get started and you will waste your entire tenure trapped in quicksand.
“Ready, fire, aim” ?
Ya almost got it. It should be more like:
“Ready, fire, aim, fire, refine aim, fire, refine aim, fire (repeat as necessary).”
Get a shot off first, see who attempts to shoot back, and narrow in on them.
Well stated. I have always said “almost any true American off the street would be better than most of the bozos put in place.” Trump should have fired many people by now – put the fear of God in the ones that remain.
True. Any new manager needs to fire someone day one.
There is always a weakest link that needs to go.
It sets the tone for whom is in charge, and keeps the rest of them on their toes.
I’m already disappointed. Wray and others were allowed to slip away without consequence. The defacto state of the fbi is corrupt. Certainly 95% of it. It is beyond redemption. I don’t want government agencies that can do the heinous acts the fbi has been doing.
Patel and Bongino are on a fools errand attempting to reform it. The fbi must be destroyed, and the earth below it salted. That’s the only exceptable course of action.
Show me where the political will to destroy the FBI completely is? What about the public will?
I would think at least all of Trump supporters want the FBI destroyed. They have seen the early morning raids of innocent people, the lack of justice for the guilty, etc.
“I’m already disappointed”.
A personally helpful mantra to use when emotionally poisoned ==
My feels. My problem.
And, like Sundance, my solution to this problem is poison purging prayer
until those toxic feels and the chance of spreading them to others is gone.
True that personal feelings are not relevant to the objective, and negativity needs to be kept from poisoning others.
Also true that this notion is used by demagogues to suppress dissent in the ranks of followers.
So, the end result – they’ve decided to join the Gestapo.
Sundance – I agree with you 100%. It’ll take years for them to break down the silo. Meanwhile, the deep state will continue to control things from within.
On his podcasts Bongino has repeatedly said radical change is needed.
I disagree, these two made careers out of bold talk and a deep understanding of the corruption.
They said the right words to all of us, now they are somehow different people. DC attracts losers.
These two fit right in the old cast.
Now they both have the position to do something and they show themselves as empty hats.
If I were them, I would be embarrassed. Nothing good will come out of their puny efforts.
It seems like that’s what happens to them all in DC, except Trump. They get in the elite political country club talking big talk but never delivering on their promises.
I think Bongino was added to the staff because he has a large audience and he can drive the narrative through social media, otherwise, he is not suited for the position.
I see someone gets it.
Same goes for most of the other staff picks.
You’re on the right track, keep going…
What if everything being done by Trump 2.0 is theater, serving narratives?
Manipulations toward goals that most do not fathom?
Think about everything in motion that the regime is pretending to address by overall ineffectual measures, in some cases actually driving things:
Building the surveillance/police state.
Continuing the debt growth.
Biopharma harms to the populace (shots, coming Replicons).
Residual negative immigration effects.
Residual negative systemic DIE effects.
Government dysfunction exacerbated by DOGE attacks.
Military weakening exacerbated by DoD civilian DOGE decimations.
Hollowed out industry.
Add it all together and where does it lead?
One thing seems clear: NOT to where we are being led to believe.
Clue: As the US continues sinking with “narrative control” misleading us, the China-led axis including Russia is strengthening.
Peter Principle
I really don’t understand why so many say these people aren’t the right people and we are doomed.
I don’t expect President Trump or anyone he hires to fix everything the UniParty and deep state have done for YEARS in a matter of weeks. There are many things we aren’t privy to. I do not like Bondi or Patel. I can’t say I am a Bongino fan either, but he is not a “dummy.” I am willing to give people a chance only because I trust President Trump.
When I was assigned to a unit that was not performing and was full of employees that were not a supporter of the company’s mission, and had become a liability, my golden rule was, You never put off until tomorrow getting rid of someone you know should be replaced today. It just prolongs the inevitable.
‘ You never put off until tomorrow getting rid of someone you know should be replaced today. ‘
Unless the goals include continuing the organizational corruption / dysfunction.
As appears to be the case now.
This includes the organizations that are being decimated by DOGE: They are eliminating people who are needed, while leaving DIE quota people in place who should be excised
But the apparent goals of continuing the organizational dysfunction are not the whole story of DOGE.
The longer term goals are evidently to cement complete executive power over the government-contractor “public-private partnership” (fascism).
This is necessary for an executive branch setting the stage for totalitarianism: A completely compliant workforce, in fear of capricious firings.
The government side includes stripping union protections on a “national defense” pretext after the unions predictably reacted to indiscriminate DOGE cuts:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/trump-order-union-rights-federal-workers
There’s your “5D chess” in action.
Very evocative.
Hopefully helpful feedback
“evidently”
perhaps to those who are still using eyes not yet as wide open as they could be
or analyzed by someone who still has suffeted eniugh psyop damage to their heart and/or mind that distortions are inadvertently injected
Bottom line, the quest for Truth never ends unless a “lotus land” test is failed.
So bon voyage.
And God speed.
Looking forward to more “post card” updates.
#NevrrEndingJourney
When Trump says the perpetrators of all the crimes that happened over the last 8 years and the people who we find to have stolen from the American people will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law that’s when I’ll believe he has any interest in holding people accountable .
I honestly don’t think he has any interest in holding deep state criminals accountable , I think he’s just focusing on crimes being committed by people moving forward and that’s what I think Bondi and Kash are focused on also unfortunately .
I was hoping he and his people would realize that until these criminals are prosecuted the destruction of the USA will continue and be undermined . He does have to worry about people coming after him after his term but only if he refuses to bother investigating the people responsible for America’s degradation .
Focusing primarily on removing the root systems is a longer term solution than focusing on removing a few obvious “criminals” produced by those root systems
criminals that will be easily replaced and quickly multiply
as long as any of the root system remains.
Figure versus Ground.
Temporary versus Long Term solutions.
Immediate versus Delayed gratification.
Fortunately, in each case, President Trump is choosing the second option.
Thank God he’s a world renowned builder whose passion has always been incredibly complex historical restoration projects.
And thank God he’s also a Very Stable Genius who’s seeking to serve God by successfulky completing the restoration project now known by a name he copyrighted at the e d of 2011….
MAGA.
From what I have observed about Trump is he is patient and plays the long game getting the best possible long term fix. He has already been going after the people who legally did him wrong.
If you don’t think he is interested in holding people accountable, I don’t know what to tell you. If you don’t think he is hyper aware of people who are coming after him today, tomorrow and in the future, I disagree. No one is more painfully aware than he is. I have confidence in him. You know who I don’t have confidence in? Congress, judges, deep state. Trump does what is right for everyone, yet congress, judges and the deep state are the ones that are determined to continue destroying America for their own evil gains.
Excellent article. I trust Kash and Dan but you are correct. They’d be better served in the trenches than at the top having actual little impact on the troops’ day to day operations. It’s similar to having a good NCO rather than being a colonel or general. The NCO will have a more direct impact on troops than the brass.
This is where we need a more business-minded person like Bessent and Trump than a soldier/cop mentality. The government is not an army or police squad. It’s functioning and machinery do not work the same way. This is why as mentioned, Bessent has been more effective.
My only retort is that the FBI/CIA/DOJ are more likely to murder you than the Treasury. Yes, I know the IRS is dangerous but the FBI and the DOJ are literal swords for the government, especially the CIA. I think Bessent would struggle as well with the FBI or DOJ.
Sundance has this correct. They are less effective than the republican congress at this point.
Based on what? Kash has been in for a month. Bongino a week or two.
“Low competence, high motivation” won’t get the job done. Regrettably.
What impact will this have on the ‘scorecard’?
XX days and…
Day 58: JFK files released (some reported missing)
Day 61: DoEducation gone
Day 61: Title IX Maine caves
Day 68: USAID dissolved
No Epstein files.
No RFK files.
No MLK, jr files.
No Huma Abedin laptop.
No Hunter Biden laptop.
No Seth Rich files.
No Benghazi files.
No USS Liberty files.
Fort Knox gold?
Prosecution of Deep State actors?
No arrests.
No Corrupt judges held accountable? (Congress?)
DOGE successes not codified
No Justice for Tina Peters
No Justice for Ashli Babbitt
No pipe bomber or IC Handlers identified?
I posted this comment over a month ago:
************************
If I had the three amigos’ ears (Trump, Patel, Bongino) I’d strongly recommend:
Lock the doors of all FBI buildings until ALL COMPUTER FILES were duplicated and safely secured and stored elsewhere, since apparently it’s come out in the last couple of days that some FBI employees are deleting files.
Fire AT LEAST all the top two tiers of FBI management, and replace them with employees whose jobs were terminated because they were whistleblowers or employees who refused to comply with the covid vaccine mandate.
To prevent what occurred to many law abiding citizens, the head of the snake has to be chopped off, and unfortunately, our FBI snake is a hydra with many heads.
I was dismayed and annoyed when Patel, while talking about his big bust in VA declared the FBI is great again. How could that have happened, not a single person fired to my knowledge. Was the FBI ever great? Whitey Bulger, Richard Jewel, Mark Felt, Robert Hanssen entrapment operations like the Whitmer kidnapping and set ups of hapless Muslims, etc. I believe, what turned it into the enforcement arm of the leftist deep state was recruitment being steered towards leftist ideologues. This change, I recon, started during the Clinton administration. That’s long enough to completely transform the rank and file into ‘by any means necessary’ souless thugs.
How was Hillary able to acquire and hold onto the FBI files for an extended period of time?
So Sundance has analyzed “failure” from FBI leadership within several weeks of it being changed. With such insight, I am surprised you are not a world leader by now or a multi-billionaire.
FBI has been slowing corrupting since inception, and you expect it to be corrected withing weeks or months? You have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. You nor I have any idea how this will all play out.
It is better to be positive than negative and at least give them a chance before you piss all over them!
Good one.
Hopefully GREAT NEWS:
Neither Bongino nor Kash has been “silenced” ie prevented from “speaking” with “their massive followings”.
Whoever said otherwise was, wittingly or unwittingly, spreading FAKE NEWS disibfo.
Ripeness is something to keep in mind. The DOGE deep dive into the FBI has yet enter the full tilt boogie mode. The Trump teams are tangentially circling the FBI institutional culture and the bad actors that engineered and operated the worst conduct.
There’s a complex institutional history and culture in that agency. It’s been in a diseased state for decades.
Seems like Patel and Bongino are nailing a few timely things down and clearing the decks for what is to come, if it comes.
No telling where the money goes and what stories will be uncovered when the DOGE gang does their deep dive into the FBI financial history, executive budgetary mischief and practices. The DOGE team has likely already uncovered the other end of some FBI financial practices that lead back to the agency and its prior leadership.
As for the deficits in their administrative abilities, Patel can appoint the needed top gun staff to do the detail work for his office. They both need to be outside “fortress FBI” leading the charge in the field and let a loyal, specialized general staff keep order in the inner sanctum.
So much about the changes most needed boils down to timing and tempo necessary to sustain the growing momentum needed to confront and prevail against the challenges that continue to shape our nation’s fate.
Sundance–
Succinct and true- as usual!
It is an unwieldy mess that requires a radical overhaul or total elimination.
100% correct!
That tweet from Bongino is embarrassing.
Among all the good or great hires Trump has made, the Patel appointment as FBI Director made no sense. Patel was great at unraveling the corruption of Adam Schiff and the DOJ, but he is most definitely not CEO material. How Trump managed to botch naming a CEO-quality person at the FBI, whose institutional corruption nearly ruined his life, nay, almost cost him his life, will be a question for the historians.
Steve Bannon made one too many trips to Mar a Lago. I believe he is the reason Patel and Bongino are at the FBI.
I think there are many people not competent enough.
Rubio
Gabbard
Patel
Hegseth
Witkoff
Musk – (doesn’t know the constitution and bureaucracy well)
These are all senior positions. It hasn’t taken long, but the new team is already looking a bit Amateur Hour. And the fact that they are led around by the nose by Zionists in and outside the country is not looking good. The economic and trade restructuring is ambitious and encouraging; but the Zionist led foreign affairs, not to mention the domestic anti-anti-semitism crusade, is very discouraging.
Note carefully that each of these appointees has only very recently entered an arena featuring multiple layers of embedded, experienced saboteur/subordinates, who have mainstream media serving as their ‘collective’ intell and psy-ops resource.
Fight’s on!
These personnel issues could be resolved by moving the FBI’s Hdqs “back to the USA.” Those who don’t quit will “self-identify” when they request “hardship pay” to reside in an actual “American” city in a state like Oklahoma or Texas.
They still have agents that were involved at Waco and Ruby Ridge
wow. Conservative Treehouse posts have always been raw truth posts. Painful to read but with details necessary to know about. But this? It seems just like impatient criticism with no constructive answers. Most of the posts I read are simply obnoxious ad hominem comments. Negativity and lacking in hope. If we were closer to the mid term elections and nothing changed at the FBI then I would sadly agree. I do understand time is a factor. I just think there’s details we are not privy to – yet.
https://x.com/MarcoPolo501c3/status/1907103478456971720
Marco Polo is providing the new Administration with the granular background research necessary to actually drain the swamp.
So many feds have to go…
https://marcopolo501c3.substack.com/p/20250224
I think SD makes a good case.
The question as I see it:
How long should it take Kash and Dan to complete an immediate declassification and release order?
Seems like the word “immediate” from the POTUS means pretty fast.
I’m late to the party here. Perhaps Dan and Kash will soon discover the insurmountability of the problems they face, that there isn’t much apple left at the FBI, only worms? Perhaps they will be there long enough to formulate a plan on how to delegate essential law enforcement functions to other agencies and then dismantle the domestic disaster they see before their eyes? We don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, but one thing that seems undeniable, is that it can’t just be business as usual if this rogue LE agency is to regain its integrity and credibility and thus save itself from extinction.