ProPublica has the scoop on the waiver that allowed Bongino to get his top job without clearing a lie detector test. Two other top employees got similar waivers: Nicole Rucker, Kash Patel’s personal assistant, and Marshal Yates, the FBI liaison with Congress. ProPublica was able to determine that Rucker and Yates did not clear their polygraph exams.
However, ProPublica was not able to determine whether Bongino underwent a polygraph exam or what its results were. “It is possible Bongino received a preemptive exemption, a former senior FBI official with knowledge of the vetting program told ProPublica.”
What we do know points to Bongino having not cleared the exam.
One does not technically pass or fail a polygraph test, ProPublica’s article pointed out. “But a person is not cleared for approval if the examiner finds deception or is unable to reach a conclusion about the veracity of the answers given. Officials said that a person may not have technically failed the exams; the results could be deemed inconclusive, which would not meet the FBI’s standards for hiring or security clearances.”
When asked for comment, the FBI denied what ProPublica seemed not to have reported. “It is false that the individuals you referenced failed polygraphs,” wrote spokesperson Ben Williamson. He also claimed the article was “riddled with falsehoods.” But when asked to specify those alleged falsehoods, ProPublica got no response.
Oh.
This is a BFD. Bongino is the FBI’s second-highest ranking official. ProPublica’s description of his job reveals just how important it is that Bongino have the requisite security clearance. Among other highly sensitive and consequential duties, “The deputy director receives some of the country’s most closely held secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief, which also contains intelligence from the CIA and the National Security Agency.”
“People familiar with the matter say his ascent to that position without passing a standard FBI background check was unprecedented,” ProPublica also reported.
It’s not as if Bongino had a record to inspire confidence about putting our nation’s most sensitive intelligence in his hands. He, like Patel, never worked at the FBI. Bongino’s job history included a stint as a New York City police officer followed by a stint at the Secret Service. But his real qualification for the Trump administration was clearly his right-wing media prominence. “Over the years, Bongino used those platforms to push conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and professed his allegiance to President Donald Trump while railing against the agency he now helps lead,” ProPublica said. In other words, Bongino hardly seems a guy to count on for carefully vetted facts and truth.
Then there’s this: Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Patel during a September committee hearing that “highly credible sources” had provided information that “key members” of Patel’s senior executive team had “disqualifying alerts on their initial polygraph exams.” “They survived because of a personal waiver by either the director or the attorney general to remain employed by the bureau,” Durbin said.
But when Durbin directly asked Patel if anyone on his senior executive team had received disqualifying alerts on their polygraphs, Patel refused to answer, according to ProPublica. “And when the senator followed up by asking if he or Attorney General Pam Bondi granted a waiver, Patel replied, ‘I have to get back to you.’”
“The FBI did not respond to the committee on questions concerning polygraphs, according to a person familiar with the matter,” ProPublica said.
