Cases the FBI could look at are the Washington pipe bomb incident, cocaine found at the White House, and the leaking of a 2022 Supreme Court decision, he said.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on Monday that the bureau is looking at launching investigations into cases of potential public corruption.
“Shortly after swearing in, [FBI Director Kash Patel] and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest,” Dan Bongino wrote in a post on social media platform X on Monday morning.
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and radio host, added that they “made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases.”
One case that they are looking to target is the FBI investigation into the alleged pipe bombs left near the Democratic and Republican national committee buildings in Washington a day before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, he said.
The FBI said last year that a $500,000 reward is still in effect for information leading to the arrest of the pipe bomb suspect, and earlier this year, the former FBI assistant director in charge of the Washington office told CNN that officials are seeking new leads.
“Maybe allegiances have changed or relationships have changed, and it’s time to report” on the suspect, David Sundberg told the outlet.
“Tips from the public really have been very helpful but, as I mentioned, we’re still trying to identify the suspect. So we’re trying to release a little more information such that maybe it will jog somebody’s memory,” he said.
Other cases that warrant more resources include one involving the discovery of cocaine in the White House in July 2023 and the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Bongino added.
“I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative tips on these matters that may assist us then please contact the FBI,” he said in his post.
Also in his X post, Bongino noted that he and Patel have conducted one media interview together, adding, “We decided early on to limit our media footprint overall in order to keep the attention on the work being done.” Their lone interview was with Fox News this month.
“We have chosen to communicate, in writing, on this platform to fill some of the inevitable information vacuums,” he said.
“I try to read as much of your feedback as possible but the workday is busy, and my office is a SCIF with limited phone access.
“In response to feedback, both positive and negative, from our interview last week we will be releasing more information which will further clarify answers to some of the questions asked in the interview.”
In the Fox News interview, Patel and Bongino were asked about convicted sex trafficker and financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death in August 2019. They said that his cause of death was suicide, which was ruled by medical examiners after his body was found hanged in a New York jail.
“They have their right to their opinion but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was,” Patel told Fox News.
Bongino said that he agreed with Patel’s assessment that Epstein’s death was by suicide.
“He killed himself … I have seen the whole file,” Bongino added during the interview.
After Epstein’s body was found, there has been widespread speculation that he didn’t kill himself. His brother, Mark Epstein, told news outlets in 2019 that he believes his brother didn’t die by suicide, and he reiterated those claims during an interview with Megyn Kelly last year.
Meanwhile, Patel confirmed last week that the FBI is investigating New York Attorney General Letitia James over her real estate transactions.