Pam Bondi tightens grip on Justice Department after Epstein files fallout

CNN

5 hours ago

Pam Bondi has emerged from self-exile following right-wing blowback over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and is reasserting control over the Justice Department and her role as attorney general.
Bondi moved this week to install a new co-deputy FBI director alongside Dan Bongino, who had a heated confrontation with the attorney general in July and threatened to resign over the Epstein debacle. It's a signal, Trump administration officials say, that Bondi won the power struggle and Bongino is likely to exit.
After being a regular presence on Fox News from the White House lawn since taking office in February, Bondi went into a nearly monthlong media lockdown after the president's MAGA-loyalist base reacted in an uproar at the Justice Department's unsigned July 7 memo that affirmed Epstein died by suicide and reneged on Bondi's promises to release investigative files.
In twin Fox appearances in recent days, Bondi evinced that, for now at least, the Epstein imbroglio was behind her. Interviewers Sean Hannity and Larry Kudlow didn't ask about the files.
'It's over. She made it through. She's going to be fine,' one conservative ally said.
In the days after the memo was released, the Justice Department initially kept up Bondi's public appearances. Officials told CNN at the time that they believed putting Bondi in front of cameras to talk about the administration's priorities, like drug seizures and targeting violent crime, would take focus away from Epstein.
But the announcements were not enough to change the conversation. At a press conference at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters to announce fentanyl seizures, the first question Bondi took was about Epstein.
'Nothing about Epstein, not gonna talk about Epstein,' she said.
After nearly a month without taking questions from the media, Bondi used her recent Fox appearances to focus on President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, DC's police force for a crime crackdown. And she used one appearance to announce that she was bringing in another Trump cheerleader – Andrew Bailey, the Missouri attorney general – to take on a first-of-its-kind role alongside Bongino at the FBI.
It's a not-so-subtle nod that Bongino's days at the FBI could be coming to a close, Justice Department officials say. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on the idea that Bongino was being eased out, saying that Bailey 'has been brought on as another set of very credible and experienced hands to work alongside the current Deputy Director Dan Bongino, under the leadership of the director Kash Patel and the Attorney General Pam Bondi.'
Administration officials view the appearances as an effort to have the attorney general tip-toe back into the spotlight and a sign that they've weathered the Epstein scandal. Yet Bondi's days of freewheeling media appearances seem to be still be under some restrictions.
Potential landmines still loom: House Republicans have subpoenaed the FBI's Epstein investigative files and Democrats are vowing to continue to make it an issue for Bondi and other officials when they appear for hearings.
While privately White House officials complained about Bondi's handling of the Epstein information, allies say her position has never been in doubt, because of her value to Trump. Loyal and never one to shy away from attacking his political opponents, Bondi has broken the mold of more recent attorneys general, who usually seek to show some distance from presidents as a way to preserve the veneer of independence for prosecutorial decisions made by the Justice Department.
DOJ declined to comment for this story.
A month ago, amid the blowback from MAGA supporters, Bondi appeared to be under siege.
Prominent MAGA influencers, including Laura Loomer, took aim at Bondi, calling for her to be fired. And more worrisome for the White House, Bondi's mess was threatening to consume the president and his agenda.
Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News host, wrote on X that she saw two options: '1. There's no huge undisclosed there there on Epstein, Bondi misled on it (until she didn't) & Trump is quick to forgive a loyal soldier for being desperate to get on TV, or 2. There is a scandal that's being covered up & it's at his direction.'
The anger was also coming from inside the administration, from some White House advisers and from across the street at the FBI, where Patel and Bongino had themselves played roles in playing up conspiracy theories about the Epstein case. FBI officials grew annoyed at what they characterized as Bondi's 'constant' presence on Fox News, when many believed she should instead be working on a rollout for the Epstein case information.
By March, after Bondi had already angered MAGA faithful by orchestrating a White House event that provided them binders full of mostly public documents, FBI officials began warning that most of the documents being reviewed most likely wouldn't shed new light in the case.
In reaction to the embarrassment, Bondi issued a memo claiming the FBI had withheld documents and the FBI assigned agents to pull overtime shifts working overnights and weekends to redact thousands of pages, purportedly to prepare them for release.
Bondi kept telling Fox News hosts that the files would be released. But by May, Patel and Bongino began trying to prepare supporters for the let-down.
In the wake of the public furor, department officials tried to point to the FBI leadership as a reason the outrage had been so focused on Bondi, alleging that its leaders were behind sorties in the press that said the FBI wanted more information released but was ultimately stymied by the bosses at the Justice Department.
It was clear from their media appearances that Patel and Bongino still favored releasing more documents. The July 7 memo made clear the Justice Department was trying to shut down that option.