Andrew Bailey is stepping down as FBI co-deputy director to return to his family in Missouri after helping lead reforms under Kash Patel.
Fox News reported that Bailey announced his resignation Monday in a social media post, saying he would leave the bureau and go home to Missouri for family reasons.
Bailey took the co-deputy director post in August 2025 under FBI Director Kash Patel. He is departing after a short but busy stretch that included a nontraditional dual-leadership setup and public praise for internal reforms.
In his post, Bailey framed the exit as a personal choice, not a policy break.
Bailey wrote: "With great pride in what we have accomplished, I am announcing that I am stepping down to return to my family in Missouri."
"I am confident Director 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."
Patel answered quickly on social media. He tied Bailey’s tenure to concrete changes inside the bureau and thanked him for answering the call to serve.
Patel posted: "Although Andrew is leaving the FBI in order to return to his family in Missouri, his fantastic contribution instituting critical reforms which resulted in our historic success will live on. Andrew's leadership at the FBI will be missed but we are grateful he answered the call to serve!"
"Thanks Andrew for your tremendous dedication to the mission of this FBI."
The FBI pointed reporters to Bailey’s own post. The White House deferred to Patel’s remarks.
Bailey first shared the co-deputy role with Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster and former Secret Service member. Bongino stepped down in December 2025 amid clashes with then-Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
After Bongino left, Bailey continued in the co-deputy structure alongside Chris Raia. Raia previously served as assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York City Field Office.
Patel’s decision to run the bureau with co-deputies broke from the usual single-deputy model. Bailey’s resignation leaves that arrangement in flux, with no replacement named in the available reporting.
The resignation landed days after related turbulence at the Washington Field Office. Last week, two FBI agents were demoted and reassigned amid concerns the agency was not moving fast enough on alleged threatening phone calls to Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
Some coverage suggested Bailey was annoyed by those personnel moves. The FBI Rapid Response account on X rejected that framing outright.
The account posted: "This is clickbait dressed up as reporting," and "Fake news."
Bailey himself cited only family. He did not mention the demotions, the Miller calls, or any internal dispute in the resignation message Fox News relayed.
Bailey’s public record in the post is straightforward. He expressed pride in the work done, backed Patel’s reform agenda, and said he was going home to Missouri.
Photo captions tied to the reporting place Bailey in the field earlier this year. One shows him outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, Georgia, after the FBI executed a search warrant related to the 2020 election on Jan. 28, 2026. Another captures Patel speaking at a Department of Justice news conference in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 19, 2025.
Exact calendar timing beyond “Monday,” the effective last day on the job, and any successor remain unstated. Specifics on the two demoted agents and the status of the Katie Miller investigation are also not detailed in the report.
What is on the record is the reason Bailey gave and the send-off Patel delivered. Family first. Reform work continues under the director Bailey publicly endorsed on the way out.
When a senior official leaves cleanly for home and the director keeps the reform mission intact, the country gets the right message: duty matters, and so does the family waiting at the end of it.
