Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, fired by President Donald Trump, oversaw the largest stain on the administration: the Epstein files. Bondi’s incompetence on the matter was indistinguishable from sabotage — destroying the Justice Department’s reputation and killing the president’s credibility in the process.
Bondi’s firing provides Trump with an opportunity to restore the credibility lost during the first year-plus of his second presidency, but if he replaces her with a fringe influencer-type, such as former Rep. Matt Gaetz, what little credibility is left will be gone for good. Luckily, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is the reported front-runner to take the job.
When former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got canned last month, I predicted Bondi might be next on the chopping block. Unlike Noem and other ousted officials from the second Trump presidency, however, Bondi didn’t even get another position within the administration — and for good reason.
PAM BONDI SUBPOENAED FOR APRIL 14 HOUSE DEPOSITION ON EPSTEIN FILES HANDLING
Bondi’s overpromising and underdelivering on the Epstein files has given Trump’s opponents, on the Left and the Right, unlimited ammunition to attack him. It will absolutely play a factor in the 2026 midterm elections, as polls show a plurality of Americans are rightly unsatisfied with her handling of the matter.
We were promised a “client list.” It was supposedly sitting on Bondi’s desk. Then we heard that no such list exists. She promised “long-overdue accountability,” but not one co-conspirator has gone to jail. Bondi hyped up the release of “Phase 1” of the Epstein files by giving a group of conservative influencers binders full of documents. As Susie Wiles put it, those binders were “full of nothingness.” She claimed there were “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn,” and that turned out to be untrue.
When they did release the files, they came in waves, with questionable redactions — but they couldn’t even get the redactions right, accidentally exposing the identities and nude photos of abuse victims. The incident was described as “what may be the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.” They also removed and withheld files that related to Trump at first. Why? Nothing in the files was even incriminating against him. Now, because of Bondi’s incompetence, or sabotage, people accuse the DOJ of protecting Trump.
Bondi has already been replaced in the interim by former Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Trump in three criminal cases brought against him between 2023 and 2024. Trump was convicted on multiple felony counts. Blanche also represented Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in 2018. Manafort was convicted and sentenced to prison before being pardoned. Despite Blanche being a Trump loyalist, I don’t think Trump wants him leading the Justice Department for the foreseeable future.
Zeldin, who is reportedly the front-runner in this race, represented Trump during his first impeachment trial, which resulted in an acquittal for the president. He also has a history of electoral success in blue New York and came surprisingly close to defeating Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) in the 2022 gubernatorial election. While he may be loyal to Trump, Zeldin is able to curry goodwill from the other side of the aisle, and the ability to represent all Americans as a nonpartisan defender of justice is central to the role of attorney general.
And then there’s Gaetz, who has his own underage sex scandal, which may or may not have played a role in his resignation from Congress. He went on to become a show host for One America News Network and spends a lot of his free time peddling fake news to criticize Israel. Somehow, Gaetz, the most unserious candidate of all, was Trump’s first choice for attorney general before he nominated Bondi.
DEMOCRATS RIP BONDI OVER HANDLING OF EPSTEIN CASE IN ROWDY HOUSE HEARING
The Epstein drama isn’t going away anytime soon, and the president desperately needs serious leadership at the Justice Department to steer this ship. Bondi was clearly in over her head, Gaetz, thankfully, has no chance of being confirmed, and Blanche doesn’t exactly have the longest resume of success. While Zeldin certainly lacks DOJ experience, he has demonstrated a level of competence that’s in short supply in Washington these days.
Trump has had some colossal failures in his appointees — Bondi is just the latest to blow up on him. If he doesn’t hit on this next one, Republicans up and down the ballot will suffer in 2026 and 2028.