Last Updated: 8:14 p.m.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is leaving the Department of Justice and will be replaced for now by President Donald Trump’s former personal defense lawyer, the president announced Thursday.
“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,” the president wrote on social media.
Bondi will depart for an “important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump added.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, “a very talented and respected Legal Mind,” will move up in an acting role, he said.
Blanche thanked the president on social media and praised Bondi for doing her job “with strength and conviction” adding he was “grateful for her leadership and friendship.”
Trump did not indicate who he would nominate to succeed Bondi on a permanent basis.
Bondi’s exit follows the departure last month of another high-profile Cabinet member, Kristi Noem, whom Trump reassigned from the position of secretary of Homeland Security.
Epstein files
Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, oversaw the legally mandated release of government files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who surrounded himself with powerful figures, including Trump, even after he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges.
Trump’s name appeared thousands of times in the files, along with those of numerous celebrities, writers and tech giants. Trump denies knowing about Epstein’s scheme to groom and solicit hundreds of young girls for sex.
Shortly after being installed as attorney general, Bondi touted her access to the Epstein files, telling Fox News in February 2025 that the sex offender’s client list was “sitting on my desk,” and distributing binders marked “Epstein Files: Phase I” to conservative political commentators.
By July, the department announced it had found no leads in the files warranting further investigation and that no further information would be made public. The announcement set off a firestorm in Congress that eventually led to the bipartisan passage of legislation mandating the department to release millions of documents related to Epstein.
Bondi received heavy criticism for missing the legally mandated deadline to release the files, and for a botched rollout that disclosed the names of several victims.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Bondi on March 4 to testify before the committee for its separate investigation of the files. Bondi appeared on Capitol Hill for a closed-door briefing with the committee that quickly turned heated, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Dem slams ‘legacy of failure’
Lawmakers released an avalanche of statements upon Trump’s announcement that Bondi will no longer hold the highest law enforcement role in the United States.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, slammed Bondi’s tenure as a “profound betrayal not only of the Department of Justice but of the American people the Department exists to serve.”
Bondi’s “legacy of failure” includes the firing of prosecutors and federal law enforcement agents who investigated crimes committed leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Raskin said in a statement Thursday. Three FBI agents sued this week over their ouster.
“This shameful legacy is cemented by her grotesque mishandling of the Epstein files,” Raskin said, alleging Bondi protected powerful figures by redacting their names, yet allowing names of victims to be publicly disclosed.
Bondi and Raskin shared a heated exchange over the Epstein files during a Feb. 11 oversight hearing, at which she called Raskin a “washed-up loser lawyer.”
Bondi built a reputation of combativeness and an unwavering loyalty to Trump during hearings before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, thanked Bondi for being responsive to his oversight records requests and said she “helped bring violent crime down to historic lows.”
“The Judiciary Committee stands ready to advance President Trump’s next Attorney General nominee,” Grassley said.
–Ashley Murray, States Newsroom
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Well I guess there’s always onlyfans
Damien says
Zing!!!
Sherry says
Oh No. . . Barbie. . . say it isn’t so! LOL! LOL! LOL!
Laugh of the Week Here:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mychalthompson/no-kings-protest-signs-buzzfeed-community
Proud of Flagler says
I’m glad but he will just assign another unqualified hack who will lie and do whatever is asked, even if it’s illegal or immoral, we all know this.
Pogo says
Another trump tramp ridden hard, put down slaughterhouse style, and dumped back where it came from.
Let’s hope the idiot that hired all these losers gets the same courtesy and consideration.
Yee-Haw — it’s 5 o’clock somewhere.
Laurel says
Imagine that! Just before she is to testify, under oath, about the Epstein files! And here I was waiting for her cross on her chest to catch fire.
Sherry says
@Pogo and Laurel. . . Good Ones! LOL! LOL! trump and his entire administration are slowly becoming complete laughing stocks! So many signs from the “Largest Protest in US History” are simply priceless!
Billy B says
She will probably run for governor of Florida and get elected just like Rick Scott the man who defrauded medicare to the tune of 1.7 billion dollars !!!
JimboXYZ says
At least Trump fires them ? Biden kept them around to perpetuate incompetence ?
Jim says
Nice try.
Clean miss…..
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Lmao bro here is actually trying to whitewash her appointment as a good thing because Trump got rid of her. Absolutely smoothbrained comment, what’re you going to defend next? “Look, he had sex with 12 year olds but he drew the line at kids below 8?”
JimboXYZ says
Whitewashing a Bondi appointment & subsequent fire ? Hardly, some employees are one trick ponies. Have we ever had a “great” AG ? In my lifetime, I don’t think any of them are 4 year term employees.
Skibum says
There were SO MANY “Barbie” moments for Pambi over the past year! She dearly tried to out loyal all of the other loyal sycophants who practice getting on their knees and licking the convicted felon prez’ shoes every day, but alas, she finally got what she has had coming for a long time. And it seems they all at some point get thrown under the bus anyway because we all know the orange faced baby has never accepted responsibility for anything, always finding a convenient stooge to blame for everything.
Yes, despite his laughable proclamations that he hires “the best people”, Pambi was doomed, like so many before her, to be used, then used up and discarded like trash when their usefulness has waned. But there were indeed many, many legitimate reasons to fire Pambi before today. Especially because of her complete incompetence regarding her and the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein investigation, refusing to comply with the law and release all of the files, and her refusal to even turn to look at or apologize to all of the Epstein victims behind her in that most recent “testimony” before a congressional hearing. That, for me, was the day I knew she was toast! And to top it all off, in trying in vain to defend the criminal president, she raised her voice and said “The DOW is over 50,000 dollars!” (she interrupted herself saying that and tried to disparage a democrat member, who couldn’t help but laugh at her ridiculous circus show.
Good riddance Pambi! Don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you!
Me says
Karma is following all of them. Its Trump’s way or no way. He learned from Roy Cohen how to manipulate the system and be as corrupt as you can be.
Every time we turn around he is asking for more tax dollars to fund something he wants not that it benefits the people he took an oath of office to serve and protect.
Now he wants to strip funds from medicare/medicaid and childcare. He feels the States should only pay for that. Why should he care he and his family have made more money since he took office and I can’t wait until a real AG investigates that.
He will appoint DeSantis for AG and lets see if he can be more corrupt than Bondi. Their all kissing the ring for their own greedy success not to benefit the working class people.
James says
https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/bondi-trump.jpg
There’s that odd Reagan portrait again, looming in the background.
Although at that angle his smile looks somewhat normal.
Just-a observer’n.
James says
“… Bondi will depart for an “important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump added. …”
Hot oil masseuse at Mar-a-Lago Club.
*Badda-boom* (rimshot)
Atwp says
I love to see the clown show from the Republicans. Grown folk ruining the country instead of running the country. I love to Republicans acting immature and dumb. I just love it. A certain group of people think they are so perfect and pure, what a big fantasy, I just love it.