From attempts to prosecute presidentâs foes to claims of a cover-up, attorney general endured tumultuous tenure
Analysis: Bondi firing a reminder that even ultra-loyalists get dumped by Trump
Democrats cheer Trumpâs firing of Pam Bondi and attack Epstein files âcover-upâ
Donald Trump fired Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, on Thursday, removing the nationâs chief law enforcement officer after months of mounting frustration over her handling of the Epstein files and her faltering attempts to prosecute the presidentâs political enemies.
âWe love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,â Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday. He said she would be replaced by her deputy, Todd Blanche, on an interim basis.
Days before Trump was inaugurated for a second term, Bondi appeared before the Senate judiciary committee for her confirmation hearing. There was little doubt that Bondi, a Trump loyalist and former attorney general of Florida, would be confirmed. She was Trumpâs second choice for the job after his first, far more controversial pick, the former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, stepped aside.
Pressed by Democrats, Bondi pledged then that she would not politicize the justice department or to pursue prosecutions âjust for political purposesâ as Trump campaigned on doing.
The US Senate confirmed Bondi in a 54-46 vote, largely along party lines. All Republicans voted to confirm and all but one Democratic senator, John Fetterman, voted against.
The following day, she was sworn in as the 87th attorney general of the United States. In an Oval Office ceremony, Trump praised Bondi as an âunbelievably fair and unbelievably goodâ legal mind. The conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas administered her oath of office. In brief remarks, Bondi pledged to âmake America safe againâ.
Shortly after taking office, Bondi issued a slew of memos announcing changes at the department, including one that warned justice department attorneys against refusing to âzealously advanceâ legal arguments they disagree with. The move raised deep concerns among legal experts that the new attorney general was willing to set aside the departmentâs long-guarded independence in pursuit of the presidentâs agenda.
In a Fox News interview that would come to haunt her tenure, Bondi said that a âclient listâ related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was âsitting on my desk right now to reviewâ. The comment raised expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists who had speculated wildly about a list containing the names of clients to whom Epstein had trafficked underaged girls.
Days later, she presented a group of rightwing influencers and media personalities visiting the White House with binders, meant to signal her commitment to transparency regarding the investigation. But the move was widely criticized by both the left and right as a political stunt, with the binders mostly containing information that was already available publicly.
