Trump official attacks ‘deep-state’ journalist over explosive report: ‘Full steam ahead’

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino tore into New York Post columnist Miranda Devine after she released a blistering report about agency leadership from an alliance of retired and active-duty special agents and analysts.

The internal report, published by Devine on Sunday, offers a “pulse check” of the first six months at the agency with FBI Director Kash Patel at the helm. The 24 unnamed sources cited in the document expressed low confidence in their leadership, a historically toxic culture of fear and internal partisanship and declining employee morale — which are only a handful of the 10 key findings.

According to the report, the FBI is “facing its most daunting challenges to date,” with sources describing the agency as “all f–ked up” and a “rudderless ship.”

Bongino fired back against Devine, the first to make the report public, in a post on X late Monday, referring to her as a “deep-state” journalist who struck again.

“Miranda loves attacking our reform agenda with gossipy anecdotes from disgruntled former employees because she’s upset that her ‘reporting’ keeps falling apart under scrutiny,” Bongino said. “You can always count on Miranda for a timed hit piece when the Director and I make big changes.”

“Miranda prefers [the] old-guard. I don’t. Full steam ahead,” he continued.

Devine did not immediately respond to Bongino’s criticism, but reposted a question from the head pollster at Rasmussen Reports.

“What have you reformed!? Receipts please!” the post reads.

In the report, one source accused Patel of being “in over his head,” while another said that he “has neither the breadth of experience nor the bearing an FBI Director needs to be successful.” A different source called Patel “not very good,” “may be insecure,” and “lacks the requisite experience” and “measured self-confidence” for his role.

A source also reportedly called Bongino “something of a clown” and criticized his understanding of the “workings of the FBI.”

The report highlighted Patel and Bongino’s use of social media to make announcements, with a source arguing the two top officials need to “stop talking, stop posting, and just be professional.” Another said that both “are too often concerned with building their own personal resumes.”

“Under FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, (FBI) employees rarely hear directly from them in a transparent manner to explain why certain things are being changed or why the FBI is taking a different direction,” another source said, with the report adding: “His/her (FBI) co-workers hear more news about the FBI’s mission and operations from news sources and from tweets…”

The new findings, however, revealed that multiple sources praised the FBI’s crackdown of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under President Donald Trump’s administration — with one source saying that employees are “happy” with the reduced focus. The results were mixed on whether there has been progress in reforming the FBI.

Additionally, the report claims that a dislike for Trump, dubbed “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” remains “alive and well” within the agency.

“Many FBI employees have lost their ability to think critically about an issue and distinguish fact from fiction…” one source said.

The report, dated November, spans from Feb. 21 to Aug. 21 of this year.