President Donald Trump dismissed Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday.
Bondi’s removal follows reports that Trump was dissatisfied with her management of Department of Justice documents concerning the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the DOJ’s inability to effectively prosecute numerous political adversaries of the president.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will act as the interim attorney general, Trump stated, describing his former criminal defense attorney Blanche as a “highly skilled and esteemed Legal Mind” in a social media update.
Trump is considering Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a potential permanent successor to Bondi.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a steadfast friend, who served diligently as my Attorney General for the past year,” Trump expressed on Truth Social.
“Pam effectively supervised a major crackdown on crime nationwide, with murder rates dropping to their lowest point since 1900,” the president remarked.
“We appreciate Pam, and she will soon transition to a vital new role in the private sector, to be revealed soon,” Trump noted.
In a statement on X, Bondi mentioned, “In the coming month, I will work diligently to ensure a smooth transition of the Attorney General’s office to the remarkable Todd Blanche before moving to an exciting new private sector position where I will continue to advocate for President Trump and this Administration.”
Her dismissal arrives shortly after Trump let go of another cabinet member, Kristi Noem, as Secretary of Homeland Security.
Noem’s termination followed criticism regarding DHS’s stringent immigration enforcement in Minnesota, which resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents. She was succeeded by Markwayne Mullin, previously a U.S. senator from Oklahoma.
“Her time was running out,” a source revealed to MS NOW earlier Thursday, noting that Trump had been discussing Bondi’s removal with Republicans and allies in recent days.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky whose legislation requiring the DOJ to release all Epstein-related files became law in late 2025, stated in a post on X, “I support Trump’s decision to fire Pam Bondi. Do you?”
“I hope the next Attorney General will release all Epstein files in compliance with the law and pursue investigations, prosecutions, and arrests,” Massie added.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, in a post earlier Thursday on X stated, “If the rumors about Lee Zeldin replacing Pam Bondi as Attorney General are accurate — I welcome it.”
“Bondi managed the Epstein Files poorly and exacerbated this situation more than necessary for President Trump,” Mace noted. “I anticipate a new Attorney General positively.”
In his second term, Trump has been notably more restrained in dismissing senior officials compared to his first term, which was characterized by a series of sudden firings, including that of his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
Trump dismissed Sessions late in 2018 after the then-attorney general withdrew from overseeing a DOJ inquiry into the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections with Russians, which led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to conduct that investigation.
Consequences of the Epstein files
Bondi is generally viewed as having mishandled the release of documents connected to Epstein, who was once associated with Trump.
Bondi, after Trump retook the White House last year, initially vowed to unveil DOJ papers concerning Epstein, whose unlawful activities have captured the attention of the president’s MAGA political supporters.
She later backed out of that commitment after she was seen giving social media figures supportive of Trump binders of documents that were largely composed of publicly available information about Epstein.
Congress subsequently overwhelmingly passed Massie’s legislation mandating the DOJ release all its files pertaining to Epstein by December 19, which Trump reluctantly signed after resisting the initiative for several months.
Although the DOJ did produce numerous documents by that deadline, it did not release millions more until weeks afterward, and even then withheld many files.
On March 17, the House Oversight Committee summoned Bondi, requiring her to testify about the DOJ’s management of the Epstein files on April 14.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the Oversight committee, wrote in a post on X on Thursday, “Pam Bondi and Donald Trump may believe her termination exempts her from testifying before the Oversight Committee.”
“They are mistaken — and we are eager to hear from her under oath,” Garcia asserted.
Criminal cases involving Comey and James
On November 24, Bondi and the DOJ faced embarrassment due to the dismissal of federal criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump had urged Bondi to bring criminal charges against Comey and James, who are both adversaries of his.
Comey faced charges for making a false statement and obstructing justice stemming from his past congressional testimony. James was accused of bank fraud and providing false information to a financial institution regarding a mortgage she obtained in 2020.
Both denied any wrongdoing and claimed the charges were politically motivated.
A federal judge dismissed the cases against both individuals after determining that Lindsey Halligan, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, one of the officials who pursued the indictments, had been improperly appointed.
Halligan is among several federal prosecutors whose appointments during the second Trump administration have been ruled invalid.
House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, stated on Thursday, “Pam Bondi’s time as the most corrupt Attorney General in recent American history has been a shameful attack on our Constitution.”
“The so-called Attorney General and the pathetic, sycophantic political operatives she brought along have repeatedly weaponized the Department of Justice and taxpayer funds to target Donald Trump’s political opponents, violate the rights of law-abiding Americans, and attempt to intimidate and silence those who oppose this administration,” Jeffries asserted.
“Pam Bondi has misled Congress and the American public. During her leadership, the Department has forfeited centuries of expertise, intentionally violated federal laws and court orders, all while concealing millions of documents associated with the Epstein files in a massive cover-up.”
