WASHINGTON, United States: US President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday 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 to be announced at a date in the near future,” the president said, and will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Bondi has been a staunch ally of the president but has drawn fire from some Trump 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 has also reportedly drawn Trump´s ire by falling short with efforts to prosecute perceived Trump opponents such as former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
According to The New York Times, Trump may name former Republican congressman Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to be the next attorney general.
In the meantime, the post will be filled by Blanche, who was one of the personal lawyers who defended Trump in the multiple criminal cases he faced after he left the White House in 2021.
