Former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino erupted during a tense Situation Room confrontation with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in front of shocked administration insiders last July, refusing to be scapegoated for the DOJ's catastrophic mishandling of the Epstein files, according to new reporting.
According to New York Times reporting by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman from their forthcoming book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," Bongino was summoned to the White House along with FBI Director Kash Patel to meet with Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Taylor Budowich, one of Wiles's deputies.
The moment Bongino arrived in the room, Wiles accused him of leaking sensitive Epstein information to ABC News, the Times is reporting.
Bongino's response was explosive. "I'll tell you what," he reportedly exclaimed. "I'll give you $100,000 cash right now. I'm not kidding. Walk out to West Exec, put that reporter on speaker and get him to admit I leaked it. A hundred thousand dollars."
Wiles attempted to move past the accusation, saying, "Well, we all got ourselves into this --."
Bongino cut her off immediately, the Times is reporting.
"No, no, no, no, no. We didn't get ourselves into anything. I warned you guys about this the whole time, and you ignored me. And exactly what I said was going to happen happened. And now you're pretending I was in on this. I was never in on this."
The aggressive response to the White House chief of staff who has Trump's ear "startled" those in the room as Wiles pressed Bongino to commit to, "Going forward, we're all in. We're all going to agree to move forward. Are you in or not?"
"No, I'm not," Bongino shot back "This is not my plan. I'm not part of this going forward. Forget it. I'm out of here."
The Times is reporting he stormed out of the Situation Room where he climbed into the back of Patel's armored SUV and ordered the driver to take him to FBI headquarters.
According to the report, it was assumed that Bongino might resign on the spot, but White House advisers intervened, urgently pushing him to stay over fears that a public resignation over Epstein could severely damage Trump politically.