Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general

Attorney General Pam Bondi will leave her post, President Donald Trump announced Thursday, amid reports that he was frustrated with her handling of some of his key priorities.

“We love Pam, and she will be moving on to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, which will be announced at a date in the near future,” he said in a Truth Social post, adding that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will take over as acting attorney general.

A senior administration official and a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that Bondi has been fired.

Trump has become “increasingly frustrated” with Bondi in recent days, a person familiar with White House deliberations said, adding that while he likes her as a person, he doesn’t think she has “executed her vision” the way he wanted.

Trump and Bondi spoke Wednesday, and he informed her that his term as attorney general was expiring, according to an administration official.

But changing the leadership of the Justice Department does not guarantee the president the outcome he seeks, as courts have thus far largely blocked the administration’s efforts to prosecute his enemies, and Congress has sought and successfully secured the release of Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Bondi said on

“I remain eternally grateful for the trust President Trump placed in me to make America safe again,” she added.

Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, also thanked him on X.

“Pam Bondi has led this Department with strength and conviction, and I am grateful for her leadership and friendship,” he said. “Thank you to President Trump for his trust and opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General. We will continue to support the blues, uphold the law, and do everything in our power to keep America safe.”

Bondi is the second cabinet member to be fired by the president. Kristi Noem was fired last month as homeland security secretary, in a process that mirrored Bondi’s.

NBC News reported that Trump became increasingly frustrated with Noem, but that her performance in two congressional hearings is what ultimately cost her her job.

Trump had chosen Bondi, a longtime loyalist, to lead the Justice Department after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew as a candidate.

Bondi had long ties to Trump. During the 2016 Republican National Convention, she joined in “lock her up” chants aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then served on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, she became involved in efforts to overturn the results, falsely claiming that she had “won Pennsylvania.”

Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, also has deep ties to Trump. He was the lead defense attorney when Trump went on trial in 2024 on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The seven-week trial ended with Trump convicted on all 34 counts but spared any sanctions. He also represented Trump in two federal cases.

Trump and Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, have talked about the attorney general job, according to a Republican source close to Zeldin, who said Zeldin was “definitely” interested.

Two people familiar with the president’s frustrations told NBC News that Trump and Bondi had a heated confrontation at the White House last week, although they did not specify what it was about.

Bondi traveled with the president to the Supreme Court on Wednesday for oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case, and attended his prime-time speech at the White House on the war in Iran.

As attorney general, Bondi oversaw the firing of dozens of lawyers and FBI agents linked to Trump’s prosecution. His tenure was also marked by a broader voluntary exodus of lawyers that left the department with far fewer career employees who are tied to law and not politics.

He also oversaw many Trump administration priorities, halting investigations of police departments and reformulating the department to focus on investigations into the Justice Department’s perceived “weaponization” and voter fraud, though they are rare.

But under his leadership, the Justice Department has struggled to bring successful cases against Trump’s political enemies, with the president himself often complicating cases through his public statements. In February, as first reported by NBC News, the Justice Department failed to indict six members of Congress over a social media video in which they told members of the military and intelligence communities that they should not obey illegal orders.

The Justice Department’s investigation into the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell was blocked by a judge, and its cases were dismissed against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after a judge ruled that the U.S. attorney had been improperly appointed.

Some of Trump’s allies have also been frustrated with Bondi’s handling of the Justice Department’s Epstein documents.

In an interview with Vanity Fair published in December, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said Bondi had “completely sniffed” at his handling of the files, including distributing binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to a group of conservative social media influencers last year.

The Justice Department and FBI then released an unsigned joint memo in July saying they had conducted an “exhaustive” review of the sprawling case and that no additional people were expected to be charged and that no further information about it would be released publicly.

This led to the House Oversight Committee issuing a subpoena for the files and, after the department failed to turn over all the files, to the bipartisan passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which produced embarrassing allegations about the president and members of his administration.

Appearing before the House Oversight Committee in February, Bondi praised the department’s efforts to comply with the law.

But many Epstein survivors and members of Congress have denounced the department’s handling of the files, some of which included many redactions once they were released. Survivors have pointed out that some information about possible accomplices was redacted, while other information about victims of Epstein’s crimes was left untouched when it should have been redacted.

The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Bondi for testimony last month as part of the Epstein investigation. The committee said Thursday it plans to review the status of its pending subpoena.

A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee told NBC News, “Because Pam Bondi is no longer the Attorney General, Chairman Comer will speak with Republican members and the Department of Justice about the status of the deposition subpoena and confer on next steps.”

The Republican majority controls when subpoenas are issued. [NBC]

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