On Tuesday, Dan Bongino, the newly named deputy director of the FBI continued to hold forth on his eponymous daily podcast, this time focused on defending President Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s president. But first, Bongino offered a word from a sponsor: “Big Brother is watching you,” he said, noting it had been 10 years since news broke that the National Security Agency was spying on Americans’ communications.
“Well, what if I told you there’s a way to get your freedom back?” Bongino went on. “Thankfully, there is. It’s a product called ExpressVPN [which] routes 100 percent of internet activity through encrypted channels… So if you want to protect yourself from corporate and government spying, go to expressvpn.com/Bongino and get four extra months of privacy for free.”
Bongino is a former US Secret Service agent turned MAGA diehard and successful partisan entertainer. Trump announced in a social media post on Feb. 24 that Bongino would be the bureau’s number two in charge, a job that includes managing roughly 38,000 personnel and overseeing the most sensitive FBI operations nationally and around the world.
The pick flouted private assurances reportedly given to GOP senators by newly appointed FBI Director Kash Patel—who comes rife with extremist views and troubling conflicts of interest—that he would choose a veteran FBI special agent for the position, as has long been done. Bongino will be the first ever to take this crucial national security and law enforcement role fresh off of hyping antigovernment paranoia and hawking prepper products.
And he’s not done yet.
The day after being tapped for the FBI, Bongino said on his podcast that he will continue hosting it until March 14, explaining to listeners that he has to “wind the show down” to fulfill contractual obligations to advertisers: “We can’t just walk away tomorrow from business partners we had contracts with and say, ‘Hey, see ya.’”
Bongino has long used his show to promote far-right conspiracy theories—including wild-eyed claims about the FBI itself.
Thus, he has not stopped selling. “We believe in preparedness and that doesn’t change because the president’s in the White House now,” Bongino said on Tuesday’s show, pushing listeners to stock up from MyPatriot Supply. “Another crisis could hit, blackout, shortages, pandemics… This bundle has just about everything you need,” he said. “Three months of emergency food storage, water filtration, heirloom seeds, multivitamins, potassium iodide, anti-radiation tablets, and best of all, you can save $300 on this exclusive bundle, but only while it lasts.”
Bongino has long used his show to promote far-right conspiracy theories—including wild-eyed claims about the FBI itself. He has said that the “the FBI and the CIA, members of it, unquestionably tried to rig both the 2016 and 2020 election” and he has called for disbanding the bureau. (Maybe that would only occur after using the FBI to imprison top Democrats, as Bongino has also urged.) He has asserted without any evidence that the FBI has been covering up the identity of the still at-large person who planted pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican National Committee buildings in Washington the night before the January 6 insurrection because, “it was an inside job.”
On March 1, Bongino got emotional explaining his decision to join the FBI, telling listeners he couldn’t “sit on my ass when an opportunity comes to do the right thing, and not only talk about everything we wanted to change but actually change it.”
Then he pivoted: “The company I trust to help you diversify into physical gold is Birch Gold. The company I buy my gold from, Birch Gold, specializes in helping you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax-sheltered IRA and physical gold, for no money out of pocket.”
Bongino’s recent shows have further included pitches for “the country’s only Christian wireless provider,” a CBD-based sleep aid, and an online pharmacy offering “ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, emergency antibiotics, or other essential medications” on demand.
Yet, Bongino, who in 2021 decried the prevalence of “grifters” in Trump world, insists on his shows that his advertisers are similar to those of mainstream media outlets. And he depicts his decision to continue broadcasting and promoting these products after his appointment as part of a careful adherence to federal ethics rules on his part, explaining that continuing his show while working at the FBI would be a violation.
Bongino also announced that he is launching a “new production company” with his wife, long the producer of his show, serving as president—an arrangement he says will also comply with federal ethics rules. “It’s going to be divorced for me,” Bongino said.
Federal law bars government employees from working on government matters affecting their own personal financial interests, which include the interests of a spouse. Kedric Payne, ethics director at the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, said Bongino separating himself from his business is a necessary step to comply with that law. Payne said that the media company could still cause ethics issues for Bongino and potentially harm public confidence in the FBI if its content involves subject matter related to the FBI or its work.
“The bottom line is public officials should be looking out for the interests of voters, not their own financial interests,” Payne said.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment. Bongino did not respond to an inquiry from Mother Jones with specific questions.
Meanwhile, as he winds down his podcast, Bongino is heavily promoting the next incarnation of his show and its production company, called Silverlock Media. He has been reading off social media handles for it and teasing who else may host once he decamps for his FBI job. “I’m really excited,” he said Tuesday, “about the future of Silverlock Media.”
