FBI co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey resigns
Federal Bureau of Investigation co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey is resigning from the bureau to spend time with his family, he announced in a post on social media.
"With great pride in what we have accomplished, I am announcing that I am stepping down to return to my family in Missouri," Bailey said. "I am confident Director [Kash] 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 was attorney general of Missouri before taking the FBI post last year. The co-deputy director position was a first in the bureau's history. Bailey served first with former Secret Service agent and podcaster Dan Bongino, and then with Christopher Raia after Bongino resigned.
He thanked President Donald Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for the opportunity.
The arrangement was ill-defined at times, according to sources, and it's unclear if Raia will be the sole No. 2 at the agency now that Bailey has departed.
"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," Patel said in a social media post.
Bailey helped lead election integrity investigations at the FBI, including showing up with then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last January at the raid of the Fulton County, Georgia, election office, in which ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election were seized.
A federal judge in May denied Fulton County officials' request to force the FBI to return hundreds of boxes of ballots from the 2020 election that were seized earlier this year.
At the time, Gabbard's role in the raid was questioned over why the DNI -- who deals with foreign intelligence threats -- was getting involved in domestic law enforcement.
As Missouri AG, Bailey led an effort that ended with a consent decree barring social media companies from censoring protected speech and filed a number of lawsuits against the Biden administration over issues such as transgender athletes and immigration and demanded that the Justice Department provide documents and communications regarding investigations into Trump.
