Overview

• FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both former MAGA media figures, now lead the Bureau under the Trump administration.
• In a recent Fox Business interview, they publicly ruled Jeffrey Epstein's death a suicide and rejected claims of FBI instigation in the January 6 Capitol riots.
• Their statements aligned with a DOJ inspector general report, which found no FBI employees present at the Capitol riot but noted 26 confidential sources in Washington that day.
• These retractions have provoked strong criticism from MAGA influencers like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson, who accuse them of betraying Trump’s base.
• Patel and Bongino maintain their commitment to declassifying documents and assert they are open to revisiting their conclusions if new evidence emerges.