President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, making her the second Cabinet member given the ax.
Last month, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was removed from her post.
Some sources, including Time, indicated Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin may replace Bondi. Zeldin is a former Republican congressman from New York.
Bondi has been in the hot seat for months, beginning with a July memo on the Epstein files that said there was no client list and would be no disclosures, a reversal of earlier claims that she had documents related to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on her desk.
That triggered a tidal wave of outrage that has not yet receded. Intermittent reports since July have pictured Bondi’s future as endangered, followed by periods of calm.
Bondi faces a House Oversight Committee subpoena to testify about the Epstein files held by the Justice Department. She is scheduled to appear before the panel later this month.
In the lead-up to Bondi’s removal, The New York Times, Politico’s Playbook, and CNN all reported that Trump was considering removing Bondi, who had been Trump’s second choice for the post after former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was picked, but withdrew after it was clear he could not overcome opposition to Senate confirmation.
Before Bondi’s dismissal, media accounts indicated that Zeldin would likely be picked as Bondi’s successor.
Although Bondi was seen in public with the president on Wednesday, a report in the New York Post indicated that Trump told Bondi that same day that her time as attorney general was nearing an end.
“The White House did not directly address the report, but pointed The Post to a quote from the president praising Bondi,” the outlet reported, citing a statement in which Trump said, “Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job.”
A report in Semafor said that the Epstein files disaster was not the only issue that irked Trump.
The report said Trump “believes she may have alerted California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to an effort by the administration to release files from an investigation into his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.”
MS NOW reported that Trump likes Bondi on a personal level and gave her a heads-up of his intentions to “help her along.”
Time noted that Zeldin became a lawyer in 2004 at the age of 23.
Zeldin served 22 years in the military and was deployed to Iraq in 2006.
After serving in the New York state Senate from 2011 to 2014, Zeldin served in the U.S. House from 2015 to 2023. He lost the 2022 New York governor’s race to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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