Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General. President Trump announced her departure Thursday on Truth Social, saying she will transition to an unspecified private sector role within 45 days.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general. Blanche, who previously represented Trump personally as a defense attorney, said he was honored by the opportunity and praised Bondi's "strength and conviction" in the role.
Bondi confirmed her exit in a statement, saying she would spend the next month helping Blanche assume her duties before moving to what she called an "important private sector role" she is "thrilled about."
What Went Wrong
Trump's public frustration with Bondi centered on two major failures: her inability to prosecute his political rivals and her botched handling of Jeffrey Epstein files.
The AG attempted to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, both efforts that collapsed. MAGA activists and online influencers responded by demanding Bondi produce indictments against Trump's enemies, blaming her for the unsuccessful prosecutions despite the absence of prosecutable evidence.
"People are going to say it's Epstein, but the president doesn't give a s**t about that," one source who discussed the matter directly with Trump told Axios. "This was all about his enemies list and Pam wasn't getting the indictments."
The Epstein situation proved equally damaging. Bondi initially promised to release government files on the deceased sex offender, even claiming an Epstein client list sat on her desk. She later reversed course, triggering bipartisan criticism. When the DOJ finally released portions of the material after congressional pressure, the rollout was chaotic.
House Oversight Committee Democrats stormed out of a classified briefing on the files, calling Bondi combative and refusing to proceed without sworn testimony. Lawmakers voted on a bipartisan basis to subpoena her over the matter. Even Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles said Bondi "whiffed" at the task in a December Vanity Fair interview.
The underlying problem, however, traced back to Trump himself. The president had privately made clear he opposed full disclosure of the Epstein files because his name appeared in the documents.
Despite reports that Trump was preparing to remove Bondi, he initially defended her in interviews with CNN and the New York Times, calling her "a wonderful person" doing "a good job." On Wednesday, the day before announcing her exit, Bondi accompanied him to the Supreme Court for oral arguments on his birthright citizenship order and attended his evening address to the nation.
Succession remains uncertain. Lee Zeldin, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency, is believed to be Trump's preferred replacement, but administration officials told Axios that Blanche is also in contention. Other names circulating include Harmeet K. Dhillon, who runs the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, and Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term.
Bondi said she would continue fighting for Trump and his administration in her next role, though she did not disclose what that position entails.
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