Trump fires Pam Bondi as US attorney-general

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump ousted Attorney-General Pam Bondi on April 2 after mounting frustration with her performance, especially over the release of files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He also felt Ms Bondi was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries whom he wanted to face criminal charges, according to sources.

Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to the US President, will lead the Department of Justice (DOJ) temporarily, Mr Trump said in a social media post.

In the post, he praised Ms Bondi as a “great American patriot and a loyal friend” who had overseen a “massive crackdown on crime”.

He said she will soon move to a job in the private sector, but provided no details.

In her own social media post, Ms Bondi said: “Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honour of a lifetime.”

She would spend the next month handing over the role to Mr Blanche, she added.

On social media, Mr Blanche thanked Mr Trump and praised Ms Bondi, and promised to do “everything in our power to keep America safe”.

During her tenure as the top US law enforcement official, Ms Bondi was a combative champion of Mr Trump’s agenda and dismantled the DOJ’s longstanding tradition of independence from the White House in investigations.

It was, however, repeated criticism over the Epstein files, including from Trump allies and some Republican lawmakers, that came to dominate Ms Bondi’s tenure.

She was accused of covering up or mismanaging the release of records on the DOJ’s sex-trafficking investigations into Epstein, a financier who cultivated ties with many wealthy and powerful figures.

Mr Trump had informed Ms Bondi at a White House meeting on April 1 that he was looking to replace her as attorney-general, according to a source familiar with the matter.

He told her multiple times over the past several months that he was unhappy with her performance, a senior White House official told Reuters.

The official said that Mr Trump has contemplated replacing her with Mr Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, but has also discussed other candidates.

Ms Bondi spent much of April 1 with Mr Trump, riding with him to the US Supreme Court in the morning, attending an Easter lunch where he spoke, and later watching his address to the nation on the Iran war.

At the Supreme Court, Mr Trump watched as one of Ms Bondi’s top officials, Solicitor-General D. John Sauer, was grilled by justices about the administration’s attempt to limit birthright citizenship.

Political headache

The Epstein files created political headaches for Mr Trump and drew renewed scrutiny over his past friendship with Epstein, which he has said ended decades ago.

Ms Bondi’s firing could lead to a shake-up in strategy at the DOJ and potentially a renewed push to deploy the US legal system against Mr Trump’s targets.

She is the second senior Trump official to be ousted recently.

Mr Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5 following criticism of her management of the agency and his immigration agenda.

Ms Bondi, a former Republican state attorney-general in Florida, said that she worked on restoring the DOJ’s focus on violent crime and rebuilding trust with Trump supporters after federal prosecutors twice criminally charged Mr Trump during his years out of power.

She also faced criticism over the removal of dozens of career prosecutors who worked on investigations that Mr Trump opposed, with critics accusing her of abandoning the DOJ’s traditional focus on even-handed justice.

“Pam Bondi took a sledgehammer to the Justice Department and its workforce,” said Ms Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer and the head of Justice Connection, an advocacy organisation formed to aid career staff who were expelled or resigned.

Ms Bondi presided over a mass exodus of career lawyers from many crucial DOJ units and a near-total alignment between the DOJ and Mr Trump, whose image now adorns its Washington headquarters.

The DOJ has pursued a slew of investigations against Trump antagonists, including bringing criminal charges in 2025 against former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey and New York Attorney-General Letitia James.

The cases encountered obstacles in court and were thrown out by a judge who found the Trump-nominated prosecutor who brought them, Ms Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.

“Pam Bondi’s legacy will be the weaponisation of the world’s pre-eminent law enforcement agency for Donald Trump’s personal benefit, but apparently even she didn’t go far enough to appease him,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement.

Sparring with lawmakers

Ms Bondi defended the roll-out of the Epstein files, saying the Trump administration had been more transparent than those of previous presidents and that DOJ lawyers quickly reviewed reams of material.

At a House of Representatives committee hearing in February, she responded to criticism with political attacks on lawmakers.

Early in 2025, Ms Bondi had played into fevered speculation about the Epstein files, saying that a client list was on her desk for review.

But after an initial release included material that had largely already been public, the DOJ and FBI declared in July that the case was closed and that no further disclosures were warranted.

The move prompted an eruption of criticism, and eventually, a bipartisan law was passed in November requiring the DOJ to release nearly all of its files.

The release of roughly three million pages of records did not quell the controversy, as lawmakers criticised redactions in the files and the disclosure of the identities of some Epstein victims.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Ms Bondi and she was set to testify on April 14. REUTERS