Former FBI Director James Comey criticized the bureau’s current leadership and questioned why FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino would announce on social media that the bureau was reopening certain cases of “potential public corruption.”
In the process, he took a dig at Bongino’s recent career switch.
“It’s a little confusing to me, honestly. I’m sure it’s a huge adjustment to go from being a podcaster to being the deputy director of the FBI, but I don’t understand this tweet,” Comey told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” on Wednesday.
Bongino said Sunday on social media the FBI is either reopening or dedicating additional resources toward investigating “number of cases of potential public corruption.”
“These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case,” Bongino said.
The first case apparently refers to the investigation into pipe bombs placed outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee a day before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Comey said he assumed that investigation “was never closed.”
“The FBI never closes such a thing, so I guess it means they’re going to focus on it more,” he said.
On the leaked draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eventually led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Comey noted that the Supreme Court released a report on its investigation into the incident in 2023., which failed to identify who was behind the leak.
“I don’t know what the FBI’s role is there,” Comey said.
The third case involved the discovery in 2023 of cocaine at the White House, which quickly became political fodder for Republicans heading into the presidential election year.
“I thought the Secret Service investigated that,” Comey said. “So I don’t follow it and understand it.”
Comey also said it struck him as unusual that the deputy director would announce these FBI decisions via a post on the social platform X.
“The FBI often calls for public assistance or, in matters of great public concern, will announce an investigation to reassure the public,” he said.
“This seems much more narrowly targeted, maybe to a former podcast audience,” he added.
Comey said he’s not confident in the FBI leadership but said he has faith in the career officials there, who Comey said he hopes will be able to guide FBI Director Kash Patel and Bongino.
“I hope the career people are able to support the director and the deputy director. There are lots of people in the FBI who know what they’re doing. I hope these two guys are letting them guide them,” Comey said.
But he said he lacks confidence in the leaders themselves.
“Nothing in their life or their career gives me confidence that they know anything about leading an organization like that. And so I would have serious doubts. I bet they do internally about whether they have doubts. Great. Let the people who know what they’re doing give you advice, and listen to them,” he said.
President Trump ousted Comey from his post leading the FBI in 2017, and Comey has since been a vocal critic of the president, who has also taken various steps throughout the years to retaliate against the former director.
Most recently, Comey took down an Instagram post of seashells arranged to form the numbers “8647” after critics accused him of threatening the president. The former FBI director has maintained that was not his intention and that his wife innocently suggested he post the photo to Instagram after they stumbled upon the seashells on a walk on the beach.