Pam Bondi’s stint as U.S. attorney general came to an abrupt end Thursday when President Trump, frustrated with political and prosecutorial missteps at the Justice Department, fired her.
Mr. Trump met with Ms. Bondi in the Oval Office on Wednesday before his remarks to the nation on the war in Iran, during which she was informed of her ouster, sources said.
With Ms. Bondi out, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will step in as acting attorney general.
The president previously floated the idea of replacing Ms. Bondi with Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ms. Bondi disappointed Mr. Trump with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and multiple failed attempts from her office to prosecute political opponents of the president.
Still, Mr. Trump praised Ms. Bondi as he removed her from the job.
“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,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
He called Ms. Bondi “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend,” and he credited her with doing “a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.”
Ms. Bondi kept an upbeat tone after her dismissal. She pledged to help Mr. Blanche ease into the job of America’s top cop.
Ms. Bondi said leading Mr. Trump’s “highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime.”
“I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again,” she said.
She noted that since February 2025, the Justice Department had secured the lowest homicide rate in 125 years and the first-ever terrorism convictions against members of antifa, broken up domestic and transnational gangs across the country, taken custody of more than 90 top cartel figures, and won 24 favorable rulings at the Supreme Court.
Ms. Bondi said she would move on to an unspecified job. She called it “an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.”
Although Mr. Trump publicly praised Ms. Bondi, her handling of the Epstein document release became a political burden for the president. The Justice Department also could not nail down criminal convictions of Mr. Trump’s biggest political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James B. Comey.
Democrats cheered Ms. Bondi’s exit and said they would continue to fight the White House over the Epstein files.
“Good riddance. Pam Bondi was the wrong choice from the start. But the rot at the Department of Justice begins and ends with Donald Trump,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. “As long as his focus is on using DOJ as a tool for revenge and not law enforcement, the cover-up of the Epstein files, along with the countless other problems at DOJ, will continue.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Ms. Bondi’s “tenure as the most corrupt Attorney General in modern American history has been a disgraceful affront to our Constitution.”
“The so-called Attorney General and the pathetic, sycophantic political hacks installed with her have repeatedly weaponized the Department of Justice and taxpayer dollars to target political opponents of Donald Trump, trample the rights of law-abiding Americans and silence and attempt to intimidate those who disagree with this administration. Pam Bondi has lied to Congress and to the American people,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill said the next attorney general should be “more action, less Fox News.”
“Much of what candidate Trump railed against during his campaign was either not addressed, handled poorly (Epstein) or too slowly (Russia Hoax),” he said of Ms. Bondi’s tenure.
Ms. Bondi was set to face the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which subpoenaed her last month to testify about the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.
Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican who voted against the subpoena measure, had said he did not think Ms. Bondi should sit for the April 14 deposition.
Ms. Bondi, who previously served as attorney general of Florida, was Mr. Trump’s second choice after former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida withdrew from consideration in November 2024. Mr. Gaetz had a lack of Senate Republican support amid a House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.
Ms. Bondi is the second Cabinet member to be pushed out during Mr. Trump’s second term. Kristi Noem was ousted as homeland security secretary on March 5 after bipartisan criticism of her leadership. Mr. Trump named Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican, as her successor.
Mr. Trump has had a contentious history with his attorneys general. In 2018, during his first term, he fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions after Mr. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation into Mr. Trump’s presidency in 2017.
Mr. Trump’s relationship with Attorney General William Barr, the second person in the post during his first term, deteriorated when the two disagreed over whether the 2020 presidential election was tainted by election fraud. Mr. Barr resigned in December 2020.
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