FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey is resigning after roughly a year on the job, saying he will return to his family in Missouri as Director Kash Patel presses ahead with bureau reforms.
Bailey announced the move Monday in a post on X, framing the decision as a return home rather than a break with the agency’s direction under Patel.
Fox News reported that Bailey stepped into the co-deputy role in August 2025 and is now leaving the post he held through a nontraditional dual-leadership structure Patel put in place at the FBI.
In his announcement, Bailey tied the resignation to family and expressed confidence in the director’s agenda on crime, homeland defense, accountability, and public trust.
Bailey wrote:
"With great pride in what we have accomplished, I am announcing that I am stepping down to return to my family in Missouri. I am confident Director Patel will continue to reform the FBI, combat violent crime, defend the homeland, ensure strong organizational accountability and restore public trust in this institution of excellence."
Patel answered with public thanks of his own, casting Bailey’s tenure as part of reforms he said produced major results and calling the exit a loss for the leadership bench, not a rejection of the mission.
Patel wrote:
"Although Andrew is leaving the FBI in order to return to his family in Missouri, his fantastic contribution instituting critical reforms which resulted in our historic success will live on. Andrew's leadership at the FBI will be missed but we are grateful he answered the call to serve! Thanks Andrew for your tremendous dedication to the mission of this FBI."
The FBI pointed reporters to Bailey’s social media post. The White House deferred to Patel’s remarks.
Bailey did not serve alone at the top of that deputy tier. He first shared the co-deputy arrangement with Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster and former Secret Service member Patel brought into the bureau’s leadership ranks.
Bongino stepped down in December 2025 amid clashes with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Fox News reported. After Bongino left, Bailey continued in the co-deputy structure with Chris Raia, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York City Field Office.
Bailey’s departure now removes the official who had bridged both phases of that setup. Fox News did not report a named replacement or an exact final day on the job beyond the Monday announcement and Bailey’s stated plan to go back to Missouri.
Coverage around the resignation also brushed against recent personnel friction inside the bureau. Fox News noted claims that Bailey was “annoyed” over recent personnel moves at the Washington Field Office, claims the FBI’s Rapid Response account on X rejected outright.
The Rapid Response account called that narrative “clickbait dressed up as reporting” and “Fake news.”
Separately, Fox News reported that two FBI agents were demoted and reassigned last week amid concerns the agency was not moving fast enough on alleged threatening phone calls to Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. The report did not present those demotions as Bailey’s stated reason for leaving. Bailey’s own words pointed to family in Missouri.
The public record Bailey and Patel put out is straightforward. Bailey claimed pride in the work, said he is going home, and endorsed Patel’s continued push to tighten accountability and rebuild trust. Patel praised Bailey’s role in reforms and thanked him for answering the call to serve.
That pairing matters for readers who want the FBI focused on violent crime and institutional discipline instead of endless leadership drama. Bailey’s post did not attack the director, the White House, or the reform project. Patel’s reply did not hint at a purge or a policy rupture. Both men described a voluntary exit tied to family.
Open questions remain because the Monday posts did not answer them. Fox News did not report who, if anyone, will fill Bailey’s co-deputy slot, what his precise last day will be, or what specific Washington Field Office personnel moves fueled the media claims the FBI branded false. Those gaps belong to the bureau and the director to close with facts, not anonymous spin.
For now the through-line is the one Bailey and Patel put on the record: a senior official is going home to Missouri, and the director says the reform work continues.
Families should not have to compete with Washington forever, and a bureau that wants public trust should prove it with results, not rumors.
