FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey Resigns After a Troubled Year Beside Kash Patel

Andrew Bailey, the FBI co-deputy director once seen as a possible successor to Director Kash Patel, announced Monday that he is resigning, the latest senior departure from the bureau's leadership.

Bailey's resignation takes effect Oct. 2, multiple sources told CBS News. In an email to agents Monday morning and a post on X, he cited family reasons. "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," Bailey wrote, thanking President Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Patel. Patel, in his own post, thanked Bailey for "his fantastic contribution instituting critical reforms." Asked for comment, the White House pointed to Patel's post.

Bailey was Missouri's attorney general before he resigned to join the bureau in September 2025 in a newly created role. He was brought in, according to CBS News, to help ease reported tensions between then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and then-Deputy Director Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster and former Secret Service agent. The No. 2 job at the FBI had always gone to a career staffer, and splitting it between two people was a first.

The arrangement was rocky from the start, according to two sources familiar with the dynamic. They said Bailey initially was not invited to meetings and that Patel told staff to call him director, Bongino deputy director, and Bailey co-deputy director. The sources said Patel consistently kept Bailey at arm's length and cut him out of meetings a deputy director would normally attend because Bailey kept flagging things that were unconstitutional.

Bongino left the FBI in January and went back to podcasting after just under a year. The co-deputy structure survived him. His replacement, Chris Raia, is a career special agent who previously ran the bureau's New York City Field Office, a background more in line with the tradition of filling the post with someone who knows the institution from the inside. Raia remains in the job.

The resignation comes shortly after two agents who oversaw counterterrorism at the FBI's Washington Field Office were demoted. That followed complaints from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie Miller, that the bureau was not doing enough to investigate alleged threats against them. Sources said the Millers did not ask for anyone to be fired, but FBI officials chose to reassign some personnel. Last fall the couple moved into military housing after a local activist protested outside their home.

Patel is under pressure of his own. He is suing The Atlantic for $250 million over an article about his leadership of the bureau and has lately traded heated words with Democratic members of Congress over how he runs the FBI. NBC News first reported Bailey's departure.