FBI Deputy Dan Bongino Now Defends Epstein Files Redaction

In a blistering social media retort that’s racked up nearly 20,000 likes in under 24 hours, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino pushed back hard against accusations that he was looped into a secretive effort to scrub sensitive details from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The controversy erupted Sunday night when journalist Jason Leopold dropped a bombshell trove of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) emails, painting a picture of frantic internal maneuvering at the bureau to redact Epstein’s explosive records—just as Bongino was stepping into one of the most powerful law enforcement roles in the country.

“Folks, I entered on duty on March 17th,” Bongino wrote on X, in a direct response to a viral post claiming he’d been “approached in March to help redact and censor the Epstein files.”

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“The emails in the chain you see forwarded to me, at my request, were sent before I began in my position. I wanted to review what had been done before I entered on duty. It was a priority and, as you can see, they responded immediately. I’m glad that these emails are available for your review.”

The timing couldn’t be more charged.

Bongino, the firebrand conservative podcaster and ex-Secret Service agent who built a multimillion-follower empire railing against government overreach, assumed his post as FBI deputy director amid President Donald Trump’s second-term purge of the agency’s old guard.

His appointment in March 2025 was hailed by MAGA loyalists as a bulwark against “deep state” stonewalling—but now, it’s fueling fresh skepticism about whether the new administration is delivering on promises of unfiltered transparency.

The Emails That Lit the Fuse

Leopold, an award-winning reporter whose dogged FOIA battles have pried open vaults on everything from CIA black sites to Trump-era scandals, obtained the 220-page cache from the FBI’s own records.

What emerged wasn’t just bureaucratic chit-chat; it was a window into the “Epstein Transparency Project”—a high-stakes, overtime-fueled operation dubbed in one memo the “Special Redaction Project.”

Dated March 10, 2025, an email from Assistant Director Shannon Parry urgently requested “guidance from the GC [Office of the General Counsel] on the types of redactions the FBI should apply to these files.

” A follow-up chain on March 11 hammered home the point: FBI staffers needed clear marching orders to “process the right way out of the gate.”

By March 18—one day after Bongino’s start date—he was copied on an update recapping those very discussions.

The documents lay bare the scale: Over 4,700 hours of overtime logged from January to July 2025, with a single week in mid-March costing taxpayers $851,344.

Videos were cataloged meticulously—”search warrant execution photos,” “street surveillance footage,” even “aerial footage” from raids—alongside a chilling April 15 review of jailhouse clips from the Manhattan Correctional Center, where Epstein was found dead in August 2019.

Leopold didn’t mince words in his X thread: “Here’s a rare look behind the scenes at the FBI’s review of the Epstein files in March, based on emails I obtained via #FOIA. Dan Bongino was copied on an email related to ‘guidance on the types of redactions to apply.'”

He later added that the FBI had withheld 160 pages from his request, citing exemptions for ongoing investigations, privacy, and “investigative techniques.”

This all comes on the heels of a Trump-signed law from earlier this month, mandating the Justice Department to prep Epstein’s records—estimated at over 300 gigabytes of data, photos, and evidence—for public release by December 19.

Critics, including victims’ advocates and congressional Democrats, have blasted the process as a potential whitewash, especially after reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi might wield veto power over “sensitive” details.

Bongino’s Past Meets Present: From Podcaster to Power Player

To understand the irony, you have to rewind to Bongino’s pre-FBI days.

The 51-year-old Florida native spent years on his hit podcast and Fox News segments demanding the full Epstein dossier be dumped—no holds barred.

“What I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core,” he told Fox News back in July, vowing, “We cannot run a Republic like this. I’ll never be the same after learning what I’ve learned.”

That raw outrage helped propel him into Trump’s orbit, landing him the deputy director gig alongside Director Kash Patel.

But now, with emails timestamped days into his tenure, detractors are piling on.

“Dan Bongino, a podcaster who raged for Epstein transparency, was looped into the administration’s document redactions on day two,” tweeted user @TomWellborn3, calling it “staggering hypocrisy.”

Another, @SkylineReport, dissected the timeline: “Bongino stepped into the job right as those decisions were being made and was looped in almost immediately.”

Even supporters aren’t fully buying the defense.

“No redactions needed there are no children anymore they are grown women who asked the evidence be released,” fired off @apeek137035.

“Why can’t you release it unredacted? Nobody there with Epstein should be protected!”

Echoes of a Scandal That Won’t Die

Epstein’s shadow stretches long.

The financier and convicted sex offender, whose private island playground allegedly hosted A-listers from Bill Clinton to former Prince Andrew, killed himself in federal custody before trial on sex-trafficking charges.

His 2019 death—ruled a suicide but dogged by conspiracy theories—left a 300GB digital graveyard of flight logs, victim statements, and raid footage gathering dust.

Trump’s recent legislation was pitched as a reckoning, but as New Lines Magazine detailed in “The MAGA Battle Over the Epstein Files,” it’s fracturing the right: “Once described by Donald Trump as a man who ‘never dies,’ Epstein’s shadow now looms over the presidency, even from beyond the grave.”

Senate Judiciary Democrats, led by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, fired off a July letter to Bongino demanding answers on related probes, including stalled Southern District of New York investigations.

As @xray_media put it on X, “The admin’s ‘transparency’ now requires outsourcing censorship to podcasters. Nothing says ‘trust the process’ like recruiting shock jocks to sanitize trafficking files.”

Also Read: A DOJ Whistleblower Now Makes Revelation That Undermines the Judicial System’s Integrity

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