WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey said Monday he is leaving the bureau after just over a year and returning to his family in Missouri. His departure leaves Christopher Raia as the remaining deputy director under FBI Director Kash Patel.
Bailey announced the decision in a social media post thanking President Donald Trump, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Patel for the opportunity to serve. He said he was stepping down to be with his family in Missouri. Patel thanked Bailey for his service and credited him with helping institute changes at the bureau.
The former Missouri attorney general joined the FBI in September 2025. He initially shared the deputy director position with Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and conservative podcaster. The arrangement departed from the bureau’s longstanding practice of having one deputy director oversee its daily operations. Neither Bailey nor Bongino had previously worked at the FBI.
Bongino left in January. Raia, a career FBI agent who had led the bureau’s New York field office, then joined Bailey as co-deputy director. The FBI has not announced a replacement for Bailey.
During his tenure, Bailey helped oversee election-related investigations. He was present in January when FBI agents executed a search warrant and seized materials from the 2020 election at a facility in Fulton County, Georgia. The investigation has drawn attention because Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that widespread fraud caused his 2020 election defeat.
Before joining the FBI, Bailey served as Missouri attorney general. Then-Gov. Mike Parson appointed him after Eric Schmitt won election to the U.S. Senate, and voters elected Bailey to a full term in 2024. Bailey resigned from the state post in 2025 to take the FBI job.
