Head of FBI New York office says he's retired from the bureau after
being ordered to do so
[March 04, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the FBI's New York field office, who was
reported to have resisted Justice Department efforts to scrutinize
agents who participated in politically sensitive investigations, has
told coworkers that he has retired from the bureau after being directed
to do so.
James Dennehy said in a message to colleagues obtained by The Associated
Press that he was told late Friday to put in his retirement papers but
was not given a reason. The move comes in a period of upheaval at the
bureau after new FBI Director Kash Patel took office last month and as
conservative podcaster and Trump loyalist Dan Bongino has been named to
serve as deputy director.
The bureau also remains in turmoil over a highly unusual demand by the
Justice Department for the FBI to turn over a list of the thousands of
agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021,
riot at the U.S. Capitol. The January directive was seen by some in the
bureau as a possible precursor to mass firings. Dennehy, a former
Marine, was among those who resisted the order, vowing in a message he
wrote to colleagues that he was prepared to “dig in,” according to news
reports at the time.
“I’ve been told many times in my life, ‘When you find yourself in a
hole, sometimes it’s best to quit digging.’ Screw that," Dennehy wrote
in the message Monday informing colleagues that he had been forced out
as leader of one of the FBI’s busiest and most prestigious offices, a
job he’d held for several months. "I will never stop defending this
joint. I’ll just do it willingly and proudly from outside the wire,”
In a top 10 list of things he said he would miss about the FBI, he
wrote: “The independence. We will not bend. We will not falter. We will
not sacrifice what is right for anything or anyone.”
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The FBI declined to comment and a spokesperson for the Justice
Department did not immediately return a message seeking comment. NBC
News first reported Dennehy’s ouster.
A more recent conflict occurred last week when Attorney General Pam
Bondi, without providing evidence, said she had learned from an
unidentified source that the FBI office in New York remained in
possession of thousands of documents related to wealthy financier
Jeffrey Epstein that were not disclosed. She ordered the FBI to hand
over “the full and complete Epstein files” to her and directed Patel
to “conduct an immediate investigation” into why her order to the
FBI to turn over all documents was not followed.
Dennehy was put in charge of the New York field office last
September by then-FBI Director Christopher Wray.
He joined the FBI as a special agent working on counterintelligence
in the New York field office in 2002.
He transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington in 2015 and was
made a section chief a year later. His other assignments included a
stint as a chief of staff in the national security branch, special
agent in charge of the counterintelligence and cyber division of the
New York field office and special agent in charge of the Newark, New
Jersey, field office.
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Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in New York and Alanna
Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
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