From Reuters/Yahoo:
“Trump fires Pam Bondi as US
attorney general, White House official says”
U.S. President Donald Trump
removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from her post on Thursday, a White House
official said, following mounting frustration with her performance, including
her handling of investigative files related to the late financier and sex
offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump had also reportedly grown frustrated that Bondi
was not moving quickly enough to prosecute critics and adversaries who he
wanted to face criminal charges.
During her tenure as the top U.S.
law enforcement official, Bondi was a combative champion of Trump’s agenda and
dismantled the Justice Department’s longstanding tradition of independence from
the White House in its investigations.
But it was repeated criticism
over the Epstein files, including from Trump allies and some Republican
lawmakers, that came to dominate her tenure. Bondi 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 an array of wealthy and
powerful figures.
The issue created
political headaches for Trump and drew renewed scrutiny of his past friendship
with Epstein, which he has said ended decades ago. Her ouster could lead to a
shake-up in strategy at the Justice Department and potentially a renewed push
to deploy the U.S. legal system against Trump’s
targets.
Bondi is the second senior Trump
official to be ousted recently. Trump removed Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem on March 5 following criticism of her management of the agency and
Trump’s immigration agenda. Bondi, a former Republican state attorney general
in Florida, said she worked on restoring the Justice Department’s focus on
violent crime and rebuilding trust with Trump’s supporters after federal
prosecutors twice criminally charged Trump during his years out of power. Bondi
also faced criticism over the removal of dozens of career prosecutors who
worked on investigations disfavored by Trump, with critics accusing her of
abandoning the DOJ’s traditional focus on even-handed justice.
Bondi defended the rollout of the
Epstein files, saying the Trump administration had been more transparent on the
issue than previous presidents and that DOJ lawyers worked on a compressed
timeline to review reams of material. During a combative hearing before a House
of Representatives panel in January, Bondi responded to criticism with
political attacks directed at lawmakers. She refused to apologize or look at
Epstein victims and their relatives who attended the proceedings. Bondi early
last year played into fevered speculation about the Epstein files, saying 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 passed
in November requiring the Justice Department to release nearly all of its
files.
The release of roughly 3 million
pages of records still did not quell the controversy, as lawmakers criticized
redactions in the files and the disclosure of the identities of some Epstein
victims. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi
and she was set to testify on April 14.
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