The FBI arrested 62% more âviolent criminalsâ in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 following President Donald Trumpâs return to office, Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Thursday.
Trumpâs FBI has arrested 14,000 violent suspects, including cartel leaders, child predators and anti-deportation rioters, Bongino announced in a Thursday X post. The former conservative media host celebrated the numbers as indicative of a return to proper FBI priorities after the Biden administration frequently launched politically-charged criminal probes.
âWe are mission-focused on crushing violent crime and making your neighborhoods noticeably safer ⌠This is not a victory lap, we are doubling down hard,â Bongino said. Bongino highlighted early data showing the possibility of a record-low murder rate in the U.S. in 2025.
Among the âbad actorsâ the bureau caught were more than 825 alleged child predators and 140 human traffickers, Bongino said. Trumpâs FBI has also highlighted an emerging threat to children from a Satanist child predator network known as â764,â with more than 250 investigations open as of May.
âIf youâre preying on our children, we are coming for you,â Bongino said. âItâs only a matter of time.â
The deputy director said the bureau is also âpouring through dataâ to catch rioters who stoked violent chaos in Los Angeles and othercities starting on June 6 in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. More than 700 rioters have been arrested due to cooperation between the FBI and federal and state agencies, Bongino said about the riots.
The FBIâs national press office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundationâs request for comment.
Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel took the reins at the FBI with a mission to end the weaponization of federal law enforcement under former President Joe Biden.
Bidenâs FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) formed plans to investigate âRadical Traditionalistâ Catholics, arrested pro-life protesters while failing to catch pro-abortion firebombers, prosecuted a doctor who leaked records on a hospitalâs sex change procedures and jailed a Trump supporter for posting memes joking about the 2016 presidential election, among other cases that sparked outrage.
Meanwhile, the FBI and DOJ allowed the statute of limitations for tax crimes to expire for first son Hunter Biden and obstructedcriminalinvestigations into him, federal officials revealed in a series of disclosures to Congress. Hunter Biden was eventually convicted of tax and gun charges, but not without his fatherâs administration offering him a failed plea deal that would have immunized him from some future charges.
Following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, the FBI changed its own definitions of âanti-government, anti-authority violent extremismâ to include âpolitical and/or social agendasâ and overwhelmingly targeted Trump supporters in domestic terrorism probes, Newsweek reported in October 2023.
Multiple FBI agents testified to Congress about political corruption they allegedly witnessed at the agency. One named Steve Friend resigned, saying the FBI took him off child exploitation cases to investigate Jan. 6 protesters and use unnecessary SWAT team raids against them.
âWe made numerous personnel and structural changes to the leadership of the FBI to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated. Those changes continue,â Bongino said Thursday. âAnd, as a reminder, things are happening that we cannot publicly discuss. It does not mean they are not happening.â
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