Dan Bongino, the former FBI deputy director who stepped down in January after ten months on the job, told Sean Hannity he is "scared" and "terrified" that a future Democratic administration will weaponize the justice system against him, including, he said, sending "some thugs to my house."
Bongino made the remarks on Tuesday's episode of Hannity's podcast, "Hang Out with Sean Hannity," in his most extensive public comments since leaving the bureau. The former Secret Service agent turned media personality turned FBI number-two said he did everything "by the book" during his tenure, and fears it won't matter.
His warning amounts to a blunt admission from a man who sat inside the country's most powerful law-enforcement agency: the machinery of federal prosecution, once turned loose for political purposes, is not easily put back in its box. And the people who wielded it against Donald Trump, Bongino argued, were never held accountable.
Bongino did not mince words. Speaking to Hannity, he laid out his fears in personal terms:
"I'm scared, man. I'm terrified... They're going to send some thugs to my house."
He pointed directly to the Russia investigation, the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane probe, as the template he fears Democrats will follow. Bongino said that after watching how many people participated in what he called "this Russia hoax, collusion, Crossfire Hurricane bulls***," and seeing that "not a single person stopped them," he has no confidence the other side will restrain itself when it regains power.
He told Hannity he is "extremely concerned they are going to weaponize the justice system and start arresting people for jaywalking or mattress tag ripping." He added: "It worries me every day. I'd be lying to you if I said otherwise."
The former deputy director insisted his fear is not about guilt. He said he is proud of his record.
"I know what I did. And I'm proud of my work. And I am proud of what me and Kash [Patel] accomplished in the past year."
But pride in a clean record, Bongino suggested, offers no protection when the other party is willing to "rewrite the book, just like they did for President Trump." That phrase, "rewrite the book", captures his central argument: that Democrats will not play by the same rules they demand of everyone else.
Bongino took on the deputy director role in March 2025 under FBI Director Kash Patel. The position typically goes to a senior career agent. Bongino had no previous experience inside the bureau and had been one of its loudest public critics. His appointment was itself a statement about the Trump administration's intent to shake up an institution many conservatives view as irreparably politicized.
His tenure was anything but quiet. Bongino clashed with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, a dispute that became public and, as AP News reported, included a tense White House exchange. Bongino took issue with what he saw as overpromising and underperforming on the delivery of Epstein-related documents. Bondi and the Justice Department, for their part, insisted the supposed Epstein client list did not exist and maintained that Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell.
The Epstein dispute did not end cleanly. Axios reported that security footage from inside the jail on the night Epstein died was missing a minute, and that Bongino was internally blamed for the gap. He reportedly took a day off work to contemplate his future after the fallout.
Bongino said he and Patel hired an outside lawyer to oversee their work, a detail he offered as proof they operated within proper channels. Whether that precaution will shield him from future legal exposure is the question that clearly keeps him up at night.
During his time at the bureau, Bongino also made headlines for feeding false details to suspected leakers inside the FBI, a move that underscored both the depth of internal distrust and the unconventional methods he was willing to use.
President Trump offered a brief but positive send-off. "Dan did a great job," Trump said. "I think he wants to go back to his show." The remark, reported by AP News, suggested the departure was amicable, though Bongino's podcast comments paint a picture of a man who left not just for career reasons but out of genuine concern for what comes next.
Bongino announced he would return to his media career. But his parting message was not a victory lap. It was a warning.
Bongino's fear is rooted in recent history. The FBI opened its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. By 2017, the bureau had grown suspicious of Trump himself after then-Director James Comey raised questions about obstruction of justice. Trump was ultimately charged after leaving the White House following his first term, a prosecution he and his supporters have long called politically motivated.
Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a "hoax." Bongino clearly agrees. And his argument on Hannity's podcast was not abstract: if Democrats weaponized federal law enforcement against a sitting president and faced no consequences, what stops them from doing the same to a former deputy director?
The concern is not hypothetical in Bongino's telling. He watched the machinery operate from the inside. He saw the files. He knows how investigations begin, and how easily they can be aimed at political targets when institutional guardrails fail.
The broader pattern of politicized investigative tactics under the Biden-era FBI, including subpoenas of political figures' phone records, reinforces the kind of scenario Bongino described.
The contrast between Bongino's fear and James Comey's public posture is striking. In May 2025, Comey posted a photo of seashells arranged with the numbers 86 and 47 on social media. Trump, the 47th president, claimed the post was a direct threat against his life. The Trump administration subsequently indicted Comey over the post.
Comey, for his part, declared his innocence in an April 2026 video. His tone was the opposite of Bongino's:
"I'm still not afraid and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary, so let's go."
Two former FBI leaders. One says he's terrified. The other says bring it on. The difference may come down to which side of the political divide each man expects to be protected by, and which side's institutions each man trusts.
Bongino's comments deserve to be taken seriously, not because he is a uniquely sympathetic figure, but because of what they reveal about the state of federal law enforcement. A man who served as the FBI's second-in-command, who had access to the most sensitive files and operations in the country, is telling the public, plainly, that he believes the justice system will be turned against people like him the moment the political winds shift.
That is not a partisan talking point. It is a structural indictment. When former senior officials at the FBI openly say they expect to be targeted by future administrations, something has broken in the system that is supposed to guarantee equal justice under law.
The ongoing debates over FISA authorities and surveillance powers only sharpen the stakes. The tools exist. The precedents have been set. The question is whether anyone in Washington has the will to dismantle the weaponization machine before the next election hands it to someone else.
Bongino said he did everything by the book. His fear is that the next people in charge will simply write a different book, and that nobody will stop them. Given what Americans have watched unfold over the past decade, it is hard to call that fear unreasonable.
When a man who ran the FBI's daily operations says out loud that he's afraid of what the government might do to him, the rest of us should probably pay attention.