Bongino Reveals What Triggered Viral Post About Being 'Shocked' to His 'Core' at FBI
Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino revealed new details this week about the moment that prompted his viral July 2025 X post in which he said he was “shocked” to his “core” after reviewing internal FBI documents.
Appearing Monday on “The Vince Show,” Bongino told host Vince Coglianese that he was reading previously unseen materials related to Crossfire Hurricane when the magnitude of what he was reviewing fully set in. The post, which has since amassed more than 20.5 million views, stated that Bongino would “never be the same” after what he learned.
Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign over allegations of Russian collusion—an investigation that has since become emblematic of institutional failures and political weaponization inside federal law enforcement.
Bongino said the realization hit him late on a Friday night as he reviewed the documents alone in Washington, D.C.
“It was basically about Crossfire. I was just reading some stuff about Crossfire,” Bongino said. “And… I was blown away… I lived in this kind of tiny apartment in D.C. … And I’m sitting there and I’m thinking to myself, ‘I couldn’t believe it happened here.’ You know, Vince, like having been a Secret Service agent, a police officer, and I hadn’t been in the FBI role that long, but it had been a few months.”
Drawing on his law enforcement background, Bongino said what disturbed him most was not just procedural failure, but the collapse of human accountability inside the institution.
“I just thought, gosh, these guardrails just broke down because of people. People are guardrails, not robots… And I was just stunned at how many people just let this — just the incredibly poor decision-making,” he added. “It blew my mind… I got up the next day and I just fired that out… I was really shaken by the whole thing, how these guardrails broke down so quickly. It was astonishing. And I was — oh boy. Even now talking about it, I just remember that feeling. Like, oh my gosh, did this really happen? Yeah, that’s what that was about.”
Bongino indicated that he expects to discuss the documents in greater detail on his forthcoming program, though he emphasized that he would do so “within reason.”
Earlier Monday, Bongino announced in an X post that he is launching a “new version of The Dan Bongino Show” beginning Feb. 2. The program will stream live exclusively on Rumble every weekday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST and will focus on Washington insight, behind-the-scenes experiences from his time in government, and what he described as a message of resilience for the conservative movement.
The show will immediately follow “The Vince Coglianese Show,” which airs weekdays at 8:00 a.m. EST on Rumble.
Bongino formally announced his departure from the FBI in a Dec. 17 X post and officially left the bureau on Jan. 4, marking the end of his tenure inside an agency increasingly scrutinized by conservatives for political bias and institutional overreach.