Toggle PlayTrump fires US Attorney General Pam Bondi
US President Donald Trump has announced that he is removing Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post as head of the Justice Department.
The president posted on Truth Social that Bondi would be “transitioning” to a new role in the private sector.
It is less than a month since Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Trump ousted Bondi as attorney general, ending a tumultuous 14-month tenure at the Justice Department.
Trump described Bondi as a “loyal friend.” He named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s criminal defence lawyer, as acting attorney general.
Trump is also reportedly considering Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin as a potential permanent replacement.
In a statement, Bondi said her transition would take place over the next month and added that she remained “eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again.”
The announcement came less than two months after a tense congressional hearing in which Bondi faced aggressive questioning from politicians, with sometimes heated exchanges. At one point she insulted a Democratic member calling him a “washed-up loser”.
Trump said her new private sector role would be “announced at a date in the near future”.
Who is Pam Bondi?
Bondi, 60, served as Florida’s first female attorney general from 2011 to 2019 after more than 18 years as a prosecutor in Hillsborough County.
In Florida, she built a tough-on-crime profile, focusing on human trafficking, child abuse and the crackdown on so-called “pill mills,” clinics that illegally prescribed large quantities of painkillers, fuelling the US opioid crisis.
She also backed major Republican legal battles, including a multi-state effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 healthcare law often known as “Obamacare” that expanded access to health insurance and supported Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage before it was struck down nationwide in 2015.
Bondi later gained national prominence through frequent television appearances and her close political ties to Trump, serving on his opioid commission and later joining his legal team during his first impeachment trial and efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
Her record on sex trafficking later drew renewed scrutiny because of her limited involvement in legal challenges related to Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial non-prosecution deal in Florida, which allowed him to avoid federal charges and serve a short jail sentence despite a major sex trafficking investigation.
Bondi’s departure follows months of intense scrutiny over two key issues, as well as growing frustration from Trump over her performance.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher said Trump “likes her personally, but felt she wasn’t delivering on his views and his vision for the Justice Department”.
Fisher said that while Bondi defended Trump strongly in public and during congressional hearings, the president “wanted to see more action against people he believed had broken the law or had wronged him”.
But the biggest controversy of Bondi’s time in office came from the handling of the Epstein files, which became a growing political problem for the administration.
The Epstein case has remained one of the most politically sensitive scandals in the US.
Epstein was accused of running a sex trafficking operation involving underage girls and had connections with powerful and wealthy figures. He died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, but the case continued to generate political pressure for the release of documents related to his associates, with many Americans demanding greater transparency.
When Bondi became attorney general in February 2025, she promised more transparency in the Epstein case and said documents linked to the financier would be released. She also suggested in interviews that important evidence was in her possession, raising expectations about major revelations. However, the Justice Department later said some of the material people expected, including a supposed “client list”, did not exist.
Bondi faced further backlash after distributing binders labelled “Epstein Files” to conservative influencers that contained little new information. When heavily redacted documents were later released and the administration stepped back from promises of full transparency, she faced criticism over how the issue had been handled.
The controversy became a political problem for the administration, and toward the end Bondi was largely sidelined from publicly addressing the Epstein files, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche taking on a more prominent role.
The Epstein controversy was not the only issue affecting Bondi’s position. She also reportedly struggled to deliver successful cases against some of Trump’s political rivals, something that added to frustration inside the White House. A case linked to former FBI Director James Comey fell apart and did not result in charges, while other efforts to pursue legal action against officials involved in investigations into Trump failed to move forward or were dismissed in court.
“You have to remember that the Justice Department is an independent organisation,” Fisher said.
“It’s meant to operate well away from the president. But Donald Trump was very unhappy with his attorneys general during his first term. He wanted someone who would effectively act as his own personal lawyer,” he added.
Fisher said Bondi had been Trump’s second choice for the role and was popular among his MAGA supporters, with many expecting she would deliver what the president wanted.
“But it turns out she couldn’t work within the existing legal framework to deliver what Donald Trump wanted,” he added.
Who is Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick as acting head of the Justice Department?
Blanche served as the Deputy Attorney General, acting as the second-in-command behind Bondi at the Justice Department over the past year.
Before joining the leadership at the Justice Department, Blanche was a federal prosecutor. He has close professional ties to the president through his past legal work, having served as Trump’s criminal defence attorney in two federal cases brought during the Biden administration, as well as being a key figure on Trump’s defence team during his New York ‘hush money’ case.
Upon his appointment as acting attorney general, Blanche posted a statement on X thanking Trump for the trust and opportunity, while praising Bondi for leading with “strength and conviction”. He stated that under his leadership, the department will “continue backing the blue [a reference to law enforcement officials], enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe”.
Before being tapped to lead the EPA, Zeldin served as a Republican congressman from New York and was a staunch ally of Trump. He worked on Trump’s defence team during his first impeachment and voted against certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
As head of the EPA, Zeldin has overseen the rollback of some climate change regulations and his agency has proposed adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to the list of regulated drinking water contaminants.
Zeldin is now reportedly being considered by Trump as a potential permanent replacement for Bondi, which would place another close political ally at the head of the Justice Department.
Bondi had been expected to face a congressional subpoena to answer questions under oath about the Justice Department’s handling of documents related to the Epstein case and the release of related files.
The subpoena, which ordered her to appear before the House Oversight Committee on April 14, was issued after the Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of Epstein documents failed to resolve widespread criticism. Politicians were highly frustrated with the department’s handling of the files, leading the Republican-led committee to demand her testimony to investigate further
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that he would consult Republicans on the committee about whether to continue pursuing the subpoena following Bondi’s departure. Democrats quickly called on the committee to move forward.
Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, said Bondi “will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath.”
What have been the reactions?
Gloria Allred, an attorney for numerous Epstein victims, called Bondi’s departure “long overdue,” saying the now-departing attorney general betrayed them by failing to protect personal information in the files.
“She has destroyed the trust in the DOJ that victims had a right to expect and her termination may be the only type of justice that survivors will receive from the DOJ,” Allred according to the Associated Press.
Jess Michaels, an Epstein survivor who travelled to the Capitol last year to press for the files’ release, wanted Bondi gone, but she wasn’t optimistic about what comes next.
“I’m happy that she is not in charge of this investigation anymore because she obviously failed. Do I think that the next person put in charge, Todd Blanche, is going to do any better? We can only hope. But given that they worked together, I don’t have great expectations,” Michaels said,
While Democrats applauded her exit, some voiced alarm over the reasons behind it.
Representative Cleo Fields said Pam Bondi’s firing was “deeply troubling, not because of who is leaving, but because of why.”
“Here is what should alarm every American: reports indicate that Trump’s frustration stemmed not from Bondi’s failure to uphold the law, but from his belief that she didn’t weaponise the Justice Department aggressively enough against his political enemies,” Fields said in an statement.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries noted that simply removing Bondi is “not enough to restore the credibility” of a department he claims has lost centuries of professional experience and willfully violated federal law.
Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement that the Justice Department under Bondi “became a cesspool of corruption.”
“Bondi will be remembered for blocking the release of the Epstein files, weaponising the DOJ to go after Trump’s political opponents and handing out merger approvals as political favors,” Warren said. “Good riddance.”
AdvertisementRepublican Thomas Massie also supported the decision, publicly urging the next Attorney General to release all Epstein files and pursue arrests.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley offered a more positive assessment of her time in the office, praising her responsiveness to congressional oversight and her role in dropping violent crime rates, adding that the Judiciary Committee is ready to advance Trump’s next nominee.
