Top FBI Official, Conservative Favorite To Leave Agency After Year On Job

FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey announced on Monday that he would step down from his position, saying that he planned to return home to be with his family in Missouri.

Bailey made the announcement in a post shared on X, thanking several members of President Donald Trump’s administration for placing confidence in him and allowing him to serve alongside them.

“I want to thank President Trump, @AGToddBlanche, and @FBIDirectorKash for the opportunity to serve in the FBI,” he said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we have delivered historic results in our mission to Make America Safe Again. 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.”

Bailey’s resignation will take effect Oct. 2, Bloomberg Law reported, citing two sources.

FBI Director Kash Patel also issued a statement thanking Bailey for his service and wishing him well.

“I want to thank Andrew Bailey for his dedicated service to return the FBI to its core mission and fulfill President Trump’s promise to make America safe again. 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,” Patel wrote on X. “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.”

Bailey, a conservative Republican who previously served as Missouri’s attorney general, was one of two deputies serving under Patel — the other being Christopher Raia — and it is unclear whether Patel will choose another deputy or move forward with just one. Prior administrations had only one deputy director, but the bureau shifted to a co-deputy model in 2025 when Bailey was appointed to serve alongside then-Deputy Director and conservative podcaster Dan Bongino.

As attorney general, Bailey secured a $24 billion judgment against the Chinese Communist Party in 2025 in a COVID-19 lawsuit his predecessor, Eric Schmitt, filed in 2020.

“This is a landmark victory for Missouri and the United States in the fight to hold China accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world. China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation. We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland,” Bailey said at the time.

Recent reporting had indicated that Bailey and Patel had not been getting along, and often went for long stretches without speaking to each other. Their apparently strained relationship only added to the tension that has marked the Department of Justice almost since the beginning of Trump’s second term.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, for example, clashed with Bongino over her handling of files concerning the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bongino left the FBI in January, and Bondi was fired several months later in April.

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