Andrew Bailey, the FBI’s co-deputy director, says he is leaving after just over a year to return to Missouri and raise his four young children. He denied that problems within the bureau influenced his decision, calling reports suggesting otherwise “lies”, and defended FBI Director Kash Patel against criticism of his leadership.

Bailey joined the FBI in 2025 after serving as Missouri attorney general. He highlighted the bureau’s child protection work, saying it added 55 agents to those efforts and increased victim service staffing. He also cited more than 2,000 additional state, tribal and local officers on FBI task forces, a 20% fall in homicides, over 5,000 violent offenders arrested and 3,258 kilograms of fentanyl seized; these figures were presented as evidence of the administration’s approach, without independent verification in the article.