Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired, But Don't Celebrate Her Departure

There’s always a temptation to celebrate when President Donald Trump does something sensible, like firing his Attorney General, Pam Bondi—until you ask yourself why he’s done it.

Not since John Mitchell, who was Richard Nixon’s attorney general, has anyone done more to tarnish that office and damage the Justice Department than has Bondi.

But Trump didn’t fire her because she turned the Justice Department into a cesspool of corruption. Just the opposite. He fired her because she didn’t hide the corruption well enough. She failed to achieve all the corrupt goals he set for her: She didn’t make the Epstein files go away, didn’t fully prosecute his enemies, and wasn’t convincing enough in congressional hearings and on television in advocating for Trump.

Trump has been furious that the Epstein files continue to be a political liability. He’s upset that his MAGA base, and congressional Republicans who are responsive to it, doesn’t believe that the truth has yet been told about what the Justice Department knows about Epstein. He’s angry that so many continue to think there’s a continuing cover-up—which there surely is.

Trump doesn’t simply demand total loyalty from his lackeys. He wants them to convincingly act on the media and before Congress as if they’re motivated by sincere conviction rather than mere loyalty to Trump.

But he doesn’t want the cover lifted. To the contrary—he wants it slammed shut so tightly that the public will forget all about him and Epstein. To Trump, Bondi’s failure was to have left the cover open just enough that the public still demands a full accounting.

Similarly with Trump’s demand that she prosecute his enemies (a demand he mistakenly made public on social media). He’s not angry that she’s tried to do so; he’s angry that she’s bungled it so badly that several courts rejected her prosecutors’ attempts and several grand juries have even turned down her prosecutors’ requests to indict.

The same thing with her appearances on TV and before Congress. Trump doesn’t simply demand total loyalty from his lackeys. He wants them to convincingly act on the media and before Congress as if they’re motivated by sincere conviction rather than mere loyalty to Trump. Bondi failed at this, too.

There’s no cause for celebration in Trump’s firing Bondi because Trump is likely to appoint a successor who’s better at covering up his relationship with Epstein, more effective in prosecuting his enemies, and more convincing in pretending they believe what they’re saying in trying to justify Trump’s corruption.

In other words, someone who will be even worse than Bondi has been, undermining the rule of law.