President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday after a disastrous tenure that saw her oversee the bungled release of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and an agenda of targeting Trump’s political opponents. Bondi was Trump’s second choice for the position, after former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., failed to garner the support required to be confirmed by the Senate due to sexual misconduct claims.
“We 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, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday.
Bondi was fired after rumors swirled that Trump intended to replace the attorney general, who had served as his attack dog since the beginning of his second term. Bondi previously worked as the state attorney general in Florida from 2011 to 2019, in which she could have investigated accusations from Epstein’s victims but did not.
Bondi’s time in office would later be dominated by her handling of the release of the Epstein files, which was required by law after the passage of the 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act, which received overwhelming support in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate.
However, the more than 3 million files that were released were heavily redacted, leading the lawmakers who authored the bill, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., as well as other lawmakers, to accuse Bondi and the Justice Department of not following the law, which prohibited the department from redacting information because it is potentially politically sensitive.
Bondi’s time at the top of the DOJ was also characterized by an increasing weaponization of the department against politically disfavored groups. For example, Bondi oversaw an “anti-Christian bias” task force, lauded by white conservative evangelicals but condemned by other Christian leaders. She also ordered the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” per reporting by Ken Klippenstein, using the definitions described in Trump’s seventh National Security Presidential Memorandum. The memo described “extreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment” as indicators that the Justice Department could use in this effort.
Bondi was also part of an effort to obtain voter information from Democrat-led states, with this effort reaching a fever pitch during the administration’s mass deportation push in Minnesota, which saw immigration officers kill two Americans, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in addition to 46 people that have died in immigration enforcement custody since Trump took office. The scheme involved Bondi sending a letter to Gov. Tim Walz, requesting the state’s voter roll information, claiming that it would help with immigration enforcement. Similarly, she oversaw a January FBI raid on a Fulton County election office in the pursuit of evidence to support Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from him.
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Prior to ascending to the attorney general’s office, Bondi was best known for her work as the attorney general in Florida, where she was also a strong proponent of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump indicated in his announcement post that Bondi will have an “important new job in the private sector,” though Fox News reports that she’ll be given a different job in the administration, though it’s not yet public what job Trump has in mind. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has been nominated as the new interim attorney general. Blanche was previously a registered Democrat, but changed his party affiliation to Republican before joining Trump’s admin.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900,” Trump said.
