Bondi’s removal was unlike the firings of Trump’s previous attorneys general. He fired his first AG, Jeff Sessions, after years of frustration built up over Sessions’ recusal from the Department of Justice’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. Sessions had had previously undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign, and said DOJ ethics rules required his recusal. Trump would go on to publicly call Sessions “weak,” “beleaguered,” and “disgraceful,” eventually demanding his resignation the day after the 2018 midterms. Sessions’ replacement, William Barr, lasted until December 2020, but resigned after telling the president that his election fraud claims were “bulls—t.”
Bondi didn’t lose her job over a singular, discrete decision, nor did the president consider her disloyal—he reportedly still likes her. But Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with her in recent months, focused on what he considered her ineffectual leadership in two key areas: the release of the Epstein files and the prosecution of his political enemies.
When asked by voters and podcasters on the 2024 campaign trail whether he would release files related to the government’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein files if elected, Trump repeatedly (if unenthusiastically) committed to doing so. But once in office, his tone changed, arguing that there was either little to add or that the whole subject was a “Democrat hoax.” Bondi, therefore, was tasked with triangulating the base’s demand for additional Epstein information with the president’s desire for the story to go away. Her actions failed on both fronts.
In a February 21, 2025, interview, Fox News’ John Roberts asked Bondi about releasing “the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients.” She replied that “it’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” only to later backtrack, saying she meant the overall Epstein case files, not a specific client list. On February 27, she invited a group of pro-Trump influencers—including “Libs of TikTok” creator Chaya Raichik and “Pizzagate” influencer Jack Posobiec—to the White House to collect binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified.” But the information contained in the binders was largely already public, often in less redacted form. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel the same day, Bondi demanded that the FBI give her “the full and complete Epstein files,” and later claimed she’d unearthed a “truckload” of previously withheld material and that “everything is going to come out to the public.” But in July 2025, the Department of Justice and the FBI released a joint memo stating that no “client list” existed, and that there was no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals or that he was killed by anyone other than himself.
Bondi would ultimately oversee the release of additional files, but only after being compelled by the Epstein Files Transparency Act—and these staggered, widely covered releases only further frustrated both the MAGA base and the president. Depending on the document, redactions either entirely blacked out hundreds of pages, were sloppy (particularly for information related to Trump), or were improperly absent, revealing intimate details about victims, including naked photographs. The White House temporarily barred Bondi from appearing on Fox News during this period, and earlier this year, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that Bondi “completely whiffed” on the Epstein file releases.
Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee a few weeks ago, largely refusing to answer lawmakers’ questions about the release of the files and instead focusing on insulting the committee members. When pressed by Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Bondi refused to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience to apologize for how the DOJ handled the document releases, and when pressed further, changed the subject to cite stock market performance. “The Dow is over 50,000 right now! The S&P at almost 7,000! And the Nasdaq smashing records!” she declared. “That’s what we should be talking about!”
Ultimately, though, it wasn’t Bondi’s widely mocked congressional testimony that Trump took issue with—it was her inability to secure high-profile convictions of the president’s political opponents.
That wasn’t necessarily due to a lack of alignment. Bondi—who had joined “Lock Her Up” chants about Hillary Clinton in 2016 and served on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial—began her term promising to use her authority at the DOJ to pursue the president’s personal agenda. On her first day in office, she issued a memo that reframed federal prosecutors not as representatives of the government’s interest but as the president’s own “lawyers,” and then began removing or pushing out those who disagreed. Her team fired prosecutors and FBI officials who worked on January 6 cases or investigations into Trump, and slashed the DOJ’s corruption, public integrity, and Civil Rights divisions, pivoting the department’s focus to immigration. As of January 2026, more than 2,500 lawyers had retired or left the DOJ since Trump took office for a second time, and 261 others had been fired or transferred. An estimated 16,000 total employees left or were pushed out during her tenure.
Trump visited the Department of Justice on March 14, 2025, and Bondi introduced him by praising his agenda and the department’s new direction before Trump delivered a speech describing himself as the “chief law enforcement officer” in the country and labeling the DOJ’s former prosecutors “scum” and “corrupt.” Later, Justice Department leaders unfurled a large banner with the president’s face on it along the side of the building.
But despite Bondi’s rhetoric, the president did not feel she delivered results. In September, Trump accidentally posted on Truth Social what he intended as a private text message to “Pam,” asking: “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.” And adding: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Bondi did push for indictments. In September 2025, the Trump-installed interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan—a former White House aide with no prosecutorial experience—indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress, and in October, indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on bank fraud charges. But a federal judge dismissed both indictments in November and ruled that Halligan had been unconstitutionally appointed. The Justice Department then tried and failed twice to reindict James before separate grand juries. In February, a grand jury refused to indict six Democratic members of Congress who had posted a social media video telling members of the military and intelligence communities not to obey unlawful orders. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that the president was repeatedly complaining about Bondi’s performance, “describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda.”
The president will hope to change that with her replacement—though it’s still unclear exactly who that will be. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general and Trump’s former personal attorney, will serve in the top job in an acting capacity, but he is not expected to be put forward for Senate confirmation. He also will not continue the Epstein saga. On Thursday, in the only interview in which a Trump administration official addressed Bondi’s removal, Blanche told Fox News’ Jesse Watters that the Epstein files “had nothing to do with Bondi’s removal” and that they “should not be a part of anything going forward.”
MS NOW reported that Trump is considering Jeanine Pirro (former Fox News host and current U.S. attorney for D.C.), GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt (Missouri’s former attorney general), and Alina Habba (Trump’s former personal lawyer) for the next attorney general, but the New York Times and CNN report that Lee Zeldin, current Environmental Protection Agency administrator and former congressman from New York, is the leading candidate. Trump’s challenge will be to find someone who can diligently—and effectively—pursue his agenda and also survive the confirmation process in an increasingly skeptical Senate. Bondi had been Trump’s second choice for the role, after all, only nominated after it became clear that Matt Gaetz—who, according to a congressional report, used illegal drugs and paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl—would not be confirmed.
Bondi may not entirely disappear from the story, either, as she is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding the Epstein files on April 14. Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the committee, tweeted: “Pam Bondi and Donald Trump may think her firing gets her out of testifying to the Oversight Committee. They are wrong.”