‘You’re a Grifter and a Fraud’: Trump Alum Dan Bongino BRAWLS With Thomas Massie

LEFT: Thomas Massie (Screenshot) RIGHT: Dan Bongino (Michael Reynolds/Pool via AP)

Conservative commentator and former deputy director of the FBI Dan Bongino unleashed on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Tuesday, precipitating a brawl between the two online.

“I’m frequently disappointed in politicians but Tom Massie defied the odds in my unfortunate experiences with him, as he surpassed my lowest expectations. This zero pretends to be a principled defender of liberty but, in the real world, he supports third-world tyranny,” wrote Bongino in a post on X. “Here are the receipts from a phone call I had with this zero offering him a briefing on multiple investigations he was inserting himself into by publicly commenting on them. Rather than affording the subjects of the cases their constitutional Right to due process, Massie chose to waive off the briefing and litigate it on X for clicks. Notice I tried to call him back but he wasn’t interested in facts.”

“It’s also of note that I never heard a single word from Massie during the process we engaged in to release the Epstein case docs. This process played out in media everywhere and yet Massie never reached out. Not once,” he added. “It’s almost as if he wants to be a moron. As if ignorance is bliss for him. I’m horrified I once believed this guy was authentic.”

Bongino also attached three screenshots of call records with Massie representing that the pair hopped on one 10-minute call on November 12, 2025, one three-second call on November 13, and that a call was canceled on November 18.

Massie fired back in a lengthy tweet of his own:

Dan, in your first call, which I think is the first and last occasion you and I ever spoke:

(1) you seemed upset that I had received and had released FBI whistleblower information about the pipe bomb investigation.

(2) I informed you that your staff had threatened to criminally investigate my staff as retribution against me (for pipe bomb or Epstein activity?)

(3) you threatened to personally finance a defamation suit against reporters on behalf of a suspect. Perhaps it was also a veiled threat to sue me. You said “those depositions aren’t going to fun for the people involved” or something like that. In any case, Deputy FBI Director shouldn’t be financing civil lawsuits against reporters covering cases the FBI is working on.

(4) you said you were going to call every agent in and get to the bottom of the whistleblower issue.

(5) you offered me a briefing but I was going to be tied up until at least 6pm on the Epstein files transparency act, so I asked how late i could get the briefing and you said you were going to leave the office at 5pm.

(6) I asked you a few questions on the call and your answers indicated to me that you were perhaps less informed than me on some of the issues, or you were going to be less than forthcoming.

A few hours after the call, I received and released new FBI whistleblower information regarding the all-hands meeting (which matched what you told me in #4 above), related to concern that the meeting was called to “out” the whistelblowers [sic].

Your second (attempted) call was the evening I achieved 218 signatures on the Epstein discharge petition and I had been busy thwarting Mike Johnson’s last ditch effort to derail the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Not sure why your call log shows 1:36am. You called me in the evening, maybe 8ish?

note – my staff also had the unfortunate pleasure of receiving numerous late night calls on Signal from FBI staff telling them there was absolutely nothing in the Epstein case and that I should back off.

“Of course, none of what you just vomited out is even remotely close to what happened. But you know that. You were offered an update on a case and you waived it off to continue bullshitting people on X. You were clear about that on the phone. You’re a grifter and a fraud. And you know it,” replied Bongino.

“Do you not remember I informed you that your staff had threatened my staff?” asked Massie in response. “Careful, there are receipts for this.”

Massie was a leading advocate for the Epstein Transparency Act and promoted a since-retracted article suggesting that the January 6 pipe bomber was a former Capitol Police officer in the fall.  Just last week, Massie accused the FBI of arresting the “wrong person” in the case while citing an analysis touted by the two reporters who had made the false allegation Massie had initially promoted.

The congressman is presently facing down a primary challenged from Ed Gallrein, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. On Monday evening, former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene railed against “Jewish billionaires” at a virtual fundraising event for Massie’s reelection campaign.

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