Trump fired Pam Bondi. These mistakes put her in the spotlight.

[Most recent: President Trump formally announced on social media that he was firing Attorney General Pam Bondi] In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi left a House Judiciary Committee hearing in high spirits after presenting what she considered her best defense—that is, her most ostentatiously defiant—of her handling of the Epstein file release. Many others, including some of her allies, thought her testimony—hours of loud, nonsensical rants (“The Dow’s already over 50,000!”)—was a miscalculation that only increased distrust of her. She even refused to look the victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the eye, as they sat behind her. When the backlash began, Bondi didn’t blame herself. Instead, she told an aide that the committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, had refused to defend her and paved the way for Democratic questioners, according to people close to her who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Bondi has long touted her transparency in the Epstein case, pointing to what she has described as the Eiffel Tower-sized volume of documents released under her leadership. And her attack on the Democrats played best with the audience she cares about most: President Donald Trump. But for critics, it was just the latest in more than a year of avoidable missteps and communication failures that have turned a thorny dilemma—how to manage an investigation that has dogged Trump—into a lasting political liability for Republicans. This comes on top of criticism leveled by Democrats and former Justice Department officials last year, who accused her of sacrificing the department’s independence for the sake of the president’s retaliatory agenda. However, like a radio tuned to receive only one channel—tuned to Trump's demands—Bondi won and maintained her position through her attentiveness, loyalty, and obedience. This makes her especially vulnerable to Trump's shifting opinions. In recent weeks, Trump has privately sent mixed signals. He has spoken of firing Bondi, according to four people familiar with the conversations, and replacing her with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He has complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and vented his frustration over what he sees as the department's lack of aggressiveness in pursuing his enemies, according to people who have spoken with him recently and who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. But he has also praised her loyalty publicly and speaks with her several times a week, sometimes to seek her advice or test her reaction to certain ideas, said one person close to Bondi. And on Wednesday, she accompanied the president to the Supreme Court to attend the arguments in the birthright citizenship case. The Times: A selection of readings you won't find anywhere else, with tildes and accents. Get it sent to your inbox. In response to questions about his relationship with Bondi, Trump said in a statement that "Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and is doing a great job." The biggest danger Bondi now faces, according to current and former officials, is the possibility that she has become expendable to Trump, who was able to quell Republican criticism of his hardline immigration policy by firing Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security. Some of the protection Bondi enjoyed from Republican lawmakers after Trump’s unifying victory in 2024 appears to be eroding ahead of the midterm elections, with congressional Republicans increasingly willing to hold the attorney general accountable for what they see as her mishandling of investigative files. “We want to know why the Justice Department is more focused on protecting the powerful than on delivering justice,” said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of Bondi’s most vocal Republican critics. The Epstein case is “one of the biggest cover-ups in American history,” she added, summarizing the sentiments of a segment of the party’s base. In mid-March, Mace and four other Republicans on the House Oversight Committee surprised their own leaders—and Bondi—by joining Democrats in voting to subpoena her to testify under oath behind closed doors about the Epstein case. The committee's Republican chairman, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, scheduled the deposition for April 14. Bondi has said she would comply with the law, but she and Comer have been quietly working together to avoid the deposition, though it's unclear whether it's legally possible to withdraw a subpoena, according to people familiar with the discussions. To ease the pressure, Bondi appeared at the Capitol on March 18 for a briefing with committee members. Democrats bombarded her with questions and then stormed off, saying her appearance was no substitute for her sworn and transcribed testimony. Bondi has contacted committee Republicans—including Representative Michael Cloud of Texas—hoping to address their concerns without having to do so under oath. Several lawmakers who voted for the subpoena have softened their stance, including Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Tim Burchett of Tennessee. “Attorney General Bondi has been far more communicative with Congress than her predecessors, and we support her leadership,” spokesman Mike Johnson said in a statement. Chad Gilmartin, a Justice Department spokesman, rejected the notion that his boss had mishandled the Epstein case, citing her successes in combating fraud and fentanyl trafficking, her contribution to reducing the murder rate, and the administration’s victories in the Supreme Court. Gilmartin accused The New York Times of piecing together rumors “for a story that simply doesn’t exist.” When a reporter asked her last month on Capitol Hill if she had any regrets about the Epstein case, Bondi accused her predecessors in the George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden administrations of not addressing the issue sooner. But Bondi had no one to blame for the serious mistake she made after being sworn into office early last year. In February 2025, he appeared on Fox News to announce "breaking news" about the Epstein case, claiming he had key documents, including Epstein's client list, on his desk. Shortly afterward, he showed up at a gathering of far-right influencers at the White House, where he handed out half-full white folders labeled "Epstein Files: Phase 1" that contained virtually no new information, prompting accusations of a cover-up. His team suggested there might not be a Phase 2. Several of Bondi's friends now describe that episode as a catastrophic miscalculation from which he may never recover. Initially, Bondi downplayed the long-term political implications of the case, telling a senior official working on the investigation that he believed it was an internet story of limited interest to the general public. However, in response to mounting demands, he oversaw the FBI's effort to collect and examine the files for any information that could lead to an investigation or charges. Last July, he issued a joint statement with the FBI concluding that there was no basis for new charges, no "client list," and no evidence that Epstein had blackmailed "prominent individuals," and that releasing the sealed files from the Epstein trial investigation would only endanger the victims. The backlash from far-right influencers was immediate and threatened to undermine the president's support among his base. Bondi reversed course and reopened the investigation. At the time, Bondi told Jordan and other members of the Judiciary Committee that "all that's left in there is child pornography, and nobody wants to see that," according to Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky. The FBI’s top two officials, Kash Patel, the agency’s director, and his deputy, Dan Bongino, had been pushing for the release of much more Epstein material after finding little in the files that added anything new to what was already widely known about the president’s interactions with Epstein. Behind the scenes, Bondi began arguing with Bongino, who repeatedly urged her to release as many documents as possible to avoid a political disaster. Bondi was far more cautious, citing her previous experience as a local prosecutor in Tampa, where she handled human trafficking cases, and said that releasing a large number of unredacted documents could reveal details about Epstein’s victims, including children. Her conflict with Bongino escalated into a heated confrontation at the White House last July, when an irate Bondi accused Bongino of leaking unflattering information about her to the media. By then, a small group of House Republicans had begun pressuring their leaders to pass a law requiring the release of the files. The law was passed last November. The whirlwind engulfed Bondi at a time when the president was pressuring her to investigate and indict his enemies and openly complaining about her inability to produce results. Last summer, senior political officials at the department spoke quietly about the possibility of Trump replacing Bondi. Speculation resurfaced at the end of the year, amid the possibility that an attempt to impeach the attorney general for not releasing all of the Epstein files in accordance with the newly passed law had succeeded. It didn't. The rumors died down, but they have resurfaced. Although Bondi's defiant stance before the Judiciary Committee in February was not well received by many of the panel's Republicans, Trump approved of it. Inside the White House, Bondi is considered likeable and friendly, though prone to making mistakes. Her longtime friendship with Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, encapsulates the bittersweet view of the attorney general in the West Wing. Last year, Wiles told an interviewer that Bondi had "screwed up big time" in her initial handling of the Epstein case, when she handed over "folders full of nothing." But she also recently referred to Bondi as "my sister," according to an administration official who spoke with her recently. As she demonstrated at her hearing, Bondi has a volatile temper that can flare when she feels threatened or slighted. She has had a particularly thorny relationship with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, sometimes vetoing some of Pirro's requests to hold press conferences, according to people familiar with their relationship. But the main source of tension for Bondi appears to be Trump himself. He has relentlessly pressured Bondi and his deputy, Todd Blanche, to pursue targets of his choosing, even after the collapse of cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, which were initiated despite objections from Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys. Last December, at a reception for federal prosecutors, Trump rebuked Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes for failing to indict Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and outspoken critic, for mortgage fraud, as Bondi and other officials looked on in astonishment, according to an attendee. Bondi and Blanche have gotten the president’s message. They have intensified their efforts to investigate other Trump targets, such as the Democratic fundraising group ActBlue and former CIA director John Brennan. They have also pressed prosecutors to investigate a former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, whom the president has accused of lying about his actions on January 6, 2021, according to two officials briefed on the efforts. Her reliance on binders and folders, as reference tools and visual aids, has been a hallmark of hers since her two terms as Florida's attorney general. But what worked in Tallahassee doesn't necessarily work in the bright lights of the nation's capital, where curious iPhone cameras are everywhere. Bondi's staff has advised her to ditch the paper, but she has resisted the change. At her appearance before the Judiciary Committee, she had three binders spread out on the table. The result has been embarrassing over-the-shoulder photos of her preparatory material, including written critiques of Democratic lawmakers. In the lead-up to Jordan's committee hearing, Bondi appeared particularly tense, and her staff argued with Jordan's team over minor details, such as the seating arrangements in the courtroom. They eventually agreed on space for about 40 staff members in the gallery. Then, at the last minute, Bondi's aides questioned whether a table reserved for the media—a fixture in the small courtroom for decades—was too close to Bondi, citing security concerns, according to people familiar with the discussions. The committee staff dismissed the concerns. Alan Feuer contributed reporting from New York, and Tyler Pager, Annie Karni, and Catie Edmondson from Washington. Glenn Thrush covers the Justice Department and has also written about gun violence, civil rights, and conditions in the nation's jails and prisons. Michael Gold covers Congress for the Times, focusing on immigration policy and legislative oversight.