Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, on Wednesday announced plans to leave his post in January, a move that prompted critics to speculate if the decision was fueled by the Trump administration’s deadline to drop the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Bongino was reportedly on thin ice at the FBI in August after clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files. In an unusual move, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was tapped to serve as the FBI’s co-deputy director alongside Bongino.

The DOJ must release the Epstein files by Friday, the same day that Bongino “tentatively planned” to announce his exit from the FBI, according to MS NOW.

Critics on social media weighed in on the news, with one Bluesky user arguing that Bongino could be “worried about the fallout” from the Epstein files release.

Read that take, and others, below: