By Nandita Bose, Andrew Goudsward and Jana Winter
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday after mounting frustration with her performance, especially over the release of files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump also felt 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 Trump, will lead the Justice Department temporarily, Trump said in a social media post.
In the post, Trump praised Bondi as a “Great American Patriot and a loyal friend” who had overseen a “massive crackdown in Crime.” Trump said she will soon move to a job in the private sector, but he gave no details.
In her own social media post, Bondi said: “Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime.”
She said she would spend the next month transitioning the role to Blanche. On social media, Blanche thanked Trump and praised Bondi, promising to do “everything in our power to keep America safe.”
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 to wealthy and powerful figures.
Trump informed Bondi at a White House meeting on Wednesday that he was looking to replace her as attorney general, according to a source familiar with the matter. Trump allies had encouraged the president in recent days to “rip off the Band-Aid” and fire her, according to the source and one other person familiar with the matter.
Trump told Bondi multiple times over the past several months that he was unhappy with her performance, a senior White House official told Reuters. The official said Trump has contemplated replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, but has also discussed other candidates.
Bondi spent much of Wednesday with Trump, riding with him to the U.S. 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, Trump observed as one of 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 Trump and drew renewed scrutiny of his past friendship with Epstein, which he has said ended decades ago.
Bondi’s firing 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 that 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 Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer and the head of Justice Connection, an advocacy organization formed to aid career staff who were expelled or resigned.
Bondi presided over a mass exodus of career lawyers from many crucial DOJ units and a near-total alignment between the Justice Department and Trump, whose image now adorns its Washington headquarters.
DOJ has pursued a slew of investigations against Trump antagonists, including bringing criminal charges last year against former 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, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed.
“Pam Bondi’s legacy will be the weaponization of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency for Donald Trump’s personal benefit, but apparently even she didn’t go far enough to appease him,” Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
SPARRING WITH LAWMAKERS
Bondi defended the rollout of the Epstein files, saying the Trump administration had been more transparent than previous presidents and that DOJ lawyers quickly reviewed reams of material.
At a House of Representatives committee hearing in February, Bondi responded to criticism with political attacks on lawmakers.
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 was largely already public, the DOJ and FBI declared in July that the case was closed and no further disclosures were warranted.
That prompted an eruption of criticism and eventually a bipartisan law passed in November requiring the Justice Department to release nearly all its files.
The release of roughly 3 million pages still did not quell the controversy, as lawmakers criticized redactions and the disclosure of some Epstein victims’ identities.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi and she was set to testify on April 14.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and Nandita Bose, additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jana Winter, Bhargav Acharya, Doina Chiacu, Bo Erickson and Steve Holland; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman)
