Christopher Raia, the head of the FBI’s New York field office, was named co-deputy director of the bureau Friday, replacing Dan Bongino following Bongino’s recent departure, an FBI spokesperson said. Raia is scheduled to start next week.
Raia’s appointment returns career law-enforcement leadership to the bureau’s No. 2 slot. Bongino — a conservative podcaster and former Secret Service agent who had never worked for the FBI before the Trump administration selected him — announced last month that he was departing the bureau and officially ended his tenure last week.
Raia is expected to serve alongside Andrew Bailey, the former Missouri attorney general who was named to the co-deputy director role last August.
A career FBI agent since 2003 and a former Coast Guard officer, Raia helped lead the bureau’s response to the deadly truck attack in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. He was picked to run the New York field office in April 2025 after having served as a top counterterrorism official at FBI headquarters. Over his two-decade career, he has investigated violent crime, drugs and gangs and has overseen counterterrorism and national security investigations.
Raia’s predecessor as head of the New York office, James Dennehy, was forced to retire. Dennehy was reported to have resisted Justice Department efforts to scrutinize agents who participated in politically sensitive investigations.
No immediate successor was named for Raia in New York.