FBI New York chief resigns after AG Bondi accuses bureau of withholding Epstein case documents

The head of the FBI in New York, James E. Dennehy, resigned after Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the bureau of withholding thousands of documents about the Jeffrey Epstein case.

According to a report in the New York Times, Dennehy, a veteran agent, said in an e-mail that he was forced to resign without notice or explanation. A month earlier, the head of the FBI's largest bureau nationwide himself had urged agents to "resist" in the face of mass layoffs within the agency, especially of those who investigated the events of Jan. 6.

"Late Friday, I was informed that I needed to put my retirement papers in today, which I just did," Dennehy wrote Monday in an email to colleagues. "I was not given a reason for this decision. Regardless, I apologize to all of you for not being able to fulfill my commitment to you."

Dennehy, who had led the office since September, had already provoked anger within the Trump administration after he backed those officials who refused to turn over the names of all agents who worked on the Jan. 6 cases.

Dennehy's resignation comes after Attorney General Bondi last Thursday accused the FBI New York office of unilaterally withholding documents she requested on the Epstein case, a situation that prompted a public denunciation from the Justice Department chief and a direct order to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the facts.

Later, after the complaint was revealed, Bondi said in an interview with Fox News that the FBI had sent the DOJ "truckloads" of documents related to the Epstein case.

The incident occurred just days after Bondi ordered the FBI to send the documents to her office.

"I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents," Bondi said. "Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein."

"By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained," insisted Bondi, who then ordered Patel to provide a detailed report on the investigation and specific proposals for disciplinary action.

Finally, Dennehy left office just a day after the letter.

Dennehy's departure, moreover, followed several weeks of turmoil at the FBI, in which nearly a dozen executives at the agency's headquarters were removed.

According to the NYT, the moves left "a leadership vacuum and confusion on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.."

Faced with such a situation, Director Patel produced a two-minute video sent to agency employees on Friday, the same day Dennehy was ordered to resign, in which he pledged support to his subordinates.

“I will fight for you every single day,” Patel said in that video. “I will take all the criticism.”