2.4.2026
US President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday after months of strained relations and named his former personal lawyer to serve as the acting chief of the Justice Department.
The move, which the Republican president announced in a social media post, comes amid criticism of Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files and her failure to successfully prosecute several perceived Trump political foes.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country.”
Bondi “will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector,” the president said, and will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who Trump described as “a very talented and respected Legal Mind.”
Bondi has been a staunch Trump ally but has drawn fire from some of his supporters for her handling of the release of the Justice Department files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The Epstein affair has been a major political liability for Trump, who was a longtime friend of the disgraced financier.
Bondi, in a post on X, said serving as attorney general had been “the honor of a lifetime” and said she will “continue fighting for President Trump” in her unspecified new private sector job.
“Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche,” she said. “I remain eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again.”
Bondi’s ouster comes nearly a month after Trump fired Kristi Noem as the head of the Department of Homeland Security.
Democratic lawmakers welcomed Bondi’s firing.
“Good riddance,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
“Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice became a cesspool of corruption,” Warren said. “Bondi will be remembered for blocking the release of the Epstein files.”
Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democratic member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Bondi’s legacy “will be the weaponization of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency for Donald Trump’s personal benefit.”
AFP