Pam Bondi entered her time as Donald Trump’s attorney general touting herself as a longtime, powerful voice against human trafficking and fierce victims’ advocate — but she was ousted Thursday with a legacy inextricably linked to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump announced Bondi’s departure Thursday after a tumultuous 14 months in the role, punctuated by the Justice Department’s scattershot release of millions of documents it was forced to produce related to Epstein.
The former Florida attorney general is “transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector,” Trump posted on social media announcing her ouster.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” he wrote.
Her tenure is defined by her rejection of the traditional independence of the Department of Justice from the White House — most notably plastering Trump’s face on the department’s headquarters.
After Trump appeared to publicly admonish her last September for not sufficiently pursuing his political enemies in a since-deleted post on his social media platform, the Department of Justice under her leadership secured indictments against Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey — as Trump wanted. Both were later tossed by a federal judge.
But nowhere was the hand of Trump more apparent than in the department’s scattershot and at times incoherent handling of the release Epstein files, according to victim’s attorney Spencer Kuvin.
“She could have fought for victims and not for an administration. She could have fought for the release of this information. She could have fully disclosed the information when the law said she had to,” Kuvin said. “She did none of that. All she did was she was a mouthpiece for the administration.”
Trump initially fought against a new legal requirement forcing the Department of Justice to release all of its files on Epstein late last year. After it was clear Congress disagreed, he eventually backed and signed the bill.
Bondi didn’t mention Epstein or the failed attempts at prosecuting Trump’s political enemies in a farewell message Thursday. In a statement, she defined her legacy leading the department as a crackdown on “domestic and transnational gangs,” drug cartels and “members of Antifa.”
“Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime, and easily the most consequential first year of the Department of Justice in American history,” she said.
A self-described victims’ advocate
During her confirmation hearing, Bondi told senators, “Human trafficking has been something that’s been very important to me my entire career, especially when I was attorney general for the State of Florida.”
In that role, she created the Florida Statewide Human Trafficking Council and served as its chair.
Her former Florida colleague Dave Aronberg said her image as a victims’ advocate was a defining part of her identity as a prosecutor. “That was a big part of her campaigns and her agenda,” said Aronberg, the former state attorney in Palm Beach County. “Once you become attorney general for Donald Trump, your agenda is his agenda.”
She was Florida’s attorney general from 2011 — three years after Epstein’s lenient deal with South Florida prosecutors in which he received federal immunity — until 2019.
From the earliest weeks as the country’s attorney general, after being sworn in last February, Epstein loomed over her tenure.
The Trump administration campaigned on releasing long-awaited files pertaining to Epstein held by the Department of Justice. The documents — which were accumulated in an investigation spanning nearly two decades and four administrations — have been a focal point for figures across the political spectrum.
After the president assumed office in January 2025, Bondi suggested that a list of men to whom Epstein trafficked victims was sitting on her desk for review. On Feb. 27, she wrote to FBI director Kash Patel, directing him to deliver the complete set of files to her by 8 a.m. the following day.
But there is no evidence that such a “client list” exists — and Bondi quickly backpedaled. In July, the FBI and DOJ announced in a memo that “no further disclosure of files would be appropriate or warranted.”
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” read the memo. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Immediately, she faced backlash from Congress, as representatives wrote concerned letters. Criticism only escalated when United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and she was transferred soon after to a minimum security federal prison camp in Texas.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act — bipartisan legislation signed into law by Trump in November 2025 — ultimately forced the release of some 3 million pages related to Epstein and the investigation into his crimes.
But Bondi would continue to come under intense scrutiny. Under her leadership, the Department of Justice blew past multiple release deadlines under the act. The files her department eventually released also revealed victims’ names and personal information, while redacting details not eligible to be hidden from the public under the law.
In February, a year after she first wrote her letter to Patel requesting the trove of files, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing that frequently became contentious.
“I have spent my entire career fighting for victims and I will continue to do so,” she said in her opening statement, while survivors of Epstein’s abuse listened from the rows behind her. At least one victim has since sued the Trump administration over failing to protect the victim’s privacy.
Bondi was subpoenaed to appear before a congressional committee later this month to be deposed about Epstein. Democratic lawmakers rushed to announce Thursday that her departure from the post does not get her out of that duty, according to a statement from Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat of the House Oversight Committee.
“She has weaponized the Department of Justice to protect Donald Trump and put survivors in harm’s way by exposing their identities,” he said. “Pam Bondi and Donald Trump may think her firing gets her out of testifying to the Oversight Committee. They are wrong.”
Miami Herald staff reporter Julie K. Brown contributed to this report.
