President Donald Trump announced that Pam Bondi will resign as attorney general, in the second major cabinet shakeup in less than a month.
President Trump confirmed the decision Thursday in a post on Truth Social, following a series of media reports that he was considering removing Bondi from his top law enforcement position over his dissatisfaction with Bondi’s handling of investigative files on financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will replace Bondi on an interim basis.
“Pam Bondi is a great American patriot, a loyal friend, and has faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” President Trump wrote.
The president also praised Bondi, who led the Justice Department at a time when violent crime was on the decline in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Trump did not give a reason for his decision, instead writing, “We love Pam.” He added that she would be “moving on to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector.”
Bondi’s firing comes on the heels of President Trump’s abrupt firing of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who oversaw the department amid a mass deportation campaign that led to the deaths of two Americans.
US media reported that President Trump is considering nominating Lee Zeldin, the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to replace him at the Justice Department.
President Trump has not confirmed the plan. Nominations require Senate confirmation.
Questions surrounding “politicalism”
Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, is a longtime Trump supporter and closely aligned with the president’s policies as the country’s top law enforcement official.
This led to concerns about the Justice Department’s independence, especially after top prosecutors under Bondi announced investigations and criminal charges against Trump’s political opponents.
In one case, last September, President Trump appears to have posted directly to Bondi on social media, calling on him to take action against three of his critics: Sen. Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former FBI Director James Comey.
“We cannot delay any longer. Our reputation and credibility will be destroyed,” Trump said in a post on Bondi. “Justice must be served now!!!”
Indictments against Mr. James and Mr. Comey were handed down in the following weeks, but separate grand juries subsequently decided not to indict them.
Critics and legal groups, including the American Bar Association, have warned that the actions undermine the Justice Department’s tradition of independence and lead to politically motivated prosecutions.
Recent investigations into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Minnesota’s Democratic governor, as well as a pressure campaign against state election officials ahead of November’s midterm elections, have added fuel to the allegations.
In a lawsuit filed in March, two former FBI agents accused Mr. Bondi of “political vendetta” and said he was fired for his role in investigating Mr. Trump’s previous efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Handling the Epstein Files
Bondi has also come under fire for his handling of the Epstein files, whose contents have confounded governments and institutions around the world.
Shortly after being confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Bondi repeatedly vowed to scrutinize all documents related to Mr. Epstein, including his so-called “client list” of socialites. She told Fox News in February 2025 that the list is “on my desk for consideration now.”
She also promised to release some previously withheld documents.
But the tone of Bondi and several other senior agency officials changed dramatically in the months that followed, culminating in an unsigned agency memo released in July that said investigators not only had “no incriminating ‘client list'” but also “found no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed any prominent person.”
Investigators also said they had found no evidence “that could predicate an investigation against an unaccused third party.”
Trump, a former friend of Epstein who appeared repeatedly in the file, also urged reporters to drop the case. Nevertheless, the president ultimately signed a bill passed by Congress forcing the Justice Department to release all relevant files.
Under the Bondi administration, the Justice Department has since released millions of files, but lawmakers charged that the documents still appear to be incomplete.
A heated hearing before the House Judiciary Committee in February saw Bondi’s personal attacks on lawmakers and repeated attempts to pivot to economic policy further undermine her public standing.
In one instance, Bondi refused to look an Epstein victim in the eye.
Following Ms. Bondi’s firing, several Democrats said she still had outstanding subpoenas from the House Oversight Committee, which continues to investigate Mr. Epstein.
“Pam Bondi may be fired, but she must still be held accountable,” U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown wrote in X. “She still has a legal obligation to comply with our subpoenas and appear before the oversight committee.”
