Another deputy director is gone from FBI headquarters. Andrew Bailey announced Monday he is stepping down as co-deputy director after roughly a year on the job — the second No. 2 to exit the bureau since Director Kash Patel took the helm, leaving an agency that can't seem to keep its own leadership stable long enough to enforce the law it's tasked with upholding.
Bailey, the former attorney general of Missouri, posted on X that he is returning to his family. "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 wrote, thanking Patel, President Trump, and Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Patel returned the courtesy on X: "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."
The official line is family reasons. A source familiar with the situation told the New York Post that Bailey had difficulty settling in at the bureau and struggled with being far from his family. But The Guardian reported that a New York Times account indicated Bailey and his fellow co-deputy Christopher Raia had a contentious relationship with Patel, going long stretches without speaking to each other. That detail — buried by the Post, omitted by NBC — matters. If the deputy directors aren't talking to the director, the reform isn't a team effort; it's a purge.
And a purge is what it looks like. Under Patel, the FBI has seen mass departures of career agents — some forced out for perceived political bias, others leaving voluntarily to avoid retaliation or orders they refuse to carry out, according to The Guardian. Bailey himself joined in September 2025 as part of the unusual "co-deputy" structure alongside Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster with zero formal FBI experience. Bongino left in January. Now Bailey is gone. Raia, a career special agent from the New York field office, is the last man standing in the deputy slot. Whether Trump picks another co-deputy to serve alongside him is unclear.
Before joining the FBI, Bailey was a hardline conservative who sued the Biden administration over student loan forgiveness and environmental regulations. At the bureau, he oversaw the FBI's election-integrity probes — including the January raid on a Fulton County, Georgia, election office where agents seized 2020 ballots and other materials. He also led a violent-crime crackdown in St. Louis that netted over 90 arrests, three dozen guns, and $310,000 in illicit proceeds, the Missouri Times reported.
So the question isn't whether Bailey accomplished anything. It's why the FBI can't hold onto the people it assigns to accomplish it. Two deputy directors gone in a year. Career agents fleeing. The director and his deputies reportedly not on speaking terms. The bureau tasked with enforcing the law can't keep its own house in order — and the public is supposed to trust it with theirs.
The revolving door keeps spinning. Who's next?
