Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi

President Donald Trump has dismissed Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general. 

In recent months, Trump has grown frustrated with Bondi, who served as one of his defense attorneys in his 2020 impeachment trial, for failing to prosecute his political enemies aggressively enough and for her handling of the Epstein files.

“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday, adding that she would be transitioning to a “much needed” position in the private sector.

“Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” Trump wrote.

After her dismissal, Bondi said on social media that she would transition her office to Blanche over the next month before moving on to an “important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.”

“I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again,” she added.

On social media Blanche, another one of Trump’s former defense lawyers, thanked Trump for the promotion and Bondi for her leadership.

“Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship,” Blanche wrote. “Thank you to President Trump for the trust and the opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General.”

Bondi’s dismissal is the second high-profile firing of the second Trump administration. In early March, Trump also fired former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, replacing her with former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).

Under Bondi’s leadership, the DOJ opened probes and brought criminal charges against several of Trump’s enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. 

Many of those overt political prosecutions followed Trump’s public order to Bondi to go after his foes more aggressively. To date, all have been unsuccessful.

The DOJ had also undergone an unprecedented upheaval under Bondi’s helm. Thousands of career employees have either left or been fired, multiple offices have been gutted, and prominent election deniers are now serving in senior positions throughout the department.

“Pam Bondi took a sledgehammer to the Justice Department and its workforce,” Stacey Young, executive director of Justice Connection, a support network for DOJ alumni, said in a statement. 

“DOJ’s independence, integrity, and workforce have degraded more under her leadership than at any other time during the department’s 155-year history. What she destroyed in a year could take decades to rebuild,” Young said.

Bondi’s dismissal came after she accompanied Trump to the Supreme Court Wednesday for oral arguments on his executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.

Bondi’s standing also waned among congressional Republicans, largely over her chaotic release of the DOJ’s records from its investigations into convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The release was required under a law passed virtually unanimously by Congress and signed by Trump last year. Despite bipartisan consensus on the Epstein Accountability Act, the DOJ failed to comply by delaying releases, redacting non-sensitive information in the files, and withholding disclosure notices from Congress.

Last month, five Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sided with Democrats and voted to subpoena Bondi to testify about her role in the release.

On Thursday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who introduced the motion to subpoena Bondi, said she still expected to hear from her about the Epstein files.

“My subpoena still stands,” Mace wrote. “When the Oversight Committee moved to subpoena Bondi, I did it by name, not by or not as the sitting Attorney General of the U.S.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R), a co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said he supported her dismissal.

“I hope the next AG will release all the Epstein files according to the law and follow up with investigations, prosecutions, and arrests,” Massie wrote on social media. 

Blanche’s ascension to acting attorney general comes a week after he sat for a norm-shattering interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference, during which he boasted about political purges at the DOJ and endorsed the president deploying federal agents to voting sites in future elections.

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