US President Donald Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday after mounting frustration with her performance, especially over the release of files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump also felt Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries whom he wanted to face criminal charges, according to sources.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, will lead the Justice Department temporarily, Trump said in a social media post.
In the post, Trump praised Bondi as a ‘Great American Patriot and a loyal friend’ who had overseen a ‘massive crackdown in Crime’. Trump said she will soon move to a job in the private sector, but he gave no details.
In her own social media post, Bondi said: “Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honour of a lifetime.”
She said she would spend the next month transitioning the role to Blanche. On social media, Blanche thanked Trump and praised Bondi, promising to do “everything in our power to keep America safe.”
During her tenure as the top US law enforcement official, Bondi was a combative champion of Trump’s agenda and dismantled the Justice Department’s longstanding tradition of independence from the White House in its investigations. But it was repeated criticism over the Epstein files, including from Trump allies and some Republican legislators, that came to dominate her tenure. Bondi was accused of covering up or mismanaging the release of records on the DOJ’s sex-trafficking investigations into Epstein, a financier who cultivated ties to wealthy and powerful figures.
Trump informed Bondi at a White House meeting on Wednesday that he was looking to replace her as attorney general, according to a source familiar with the matter. Trump allies had encouraged the president in recent days to “rip off the Band-Aid” and fire her, according to the source.
Trump told Bondi multiple times over the past several months that he was unhappy with her performance, a senior White House official told Reuters. The official said Trump has contemplated replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, but has also discussed other candidates. Bondi spent much of Wednesday with Trump, riding with him to the US Supreme Court in the morning, attending an Easter lunch where he spoke and later watching his address to the nation on the Iran war. At the Supreme Court, Trump observed as one of Bondi’s top officials, Solicitor General D John Sauer, was grilled by justices about the administration’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship.
The Epstein files created political headaches for Trump and drew renewed scrutiny of his past friendship with Epstein, which he has said ended decades ago.
Bondi’s firing could lead to a shake-up in strategy at the Justice Department and potentially a renewed push to deploy the US legal system against Trump’s targets.
Bondi is the second senior Trump official to be ousted recently. Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5 following criticism of her management of the agency and Trump’s immigration agenda.
Bondi, a former Republican state attorney general in Florida, said she worked on restoring the Justice Department’s focus on violent crime and rebuilding trust with Trump’s supporters after federal prosecutors twice criminally charged Trump during his years out of power. Bondi also faced criticism over the removal of dozens of career prosecutors who worked on investigations that Trump opposed, with critics accusing her of abandoning the DOJ’s traditional focus on even-handed justice.
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