Ex-prosecutor flags one moment that may have been last straw for Bondi: analyst
Outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi may have sealed her own fate just last week with a move that likely enraged Donald Trump, a legal analyst has suggested.
Bondi, who was removed from her post in the Trump administration yesterday (April 2), will serve in a new role outside of the administration. The president announced the move in a Truth Social post, which reads, "Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year.
"Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.
"We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General."
Former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Joyce Vance, believes Bondi would always have been fired by Trump, though the events leading up to her firing, particularly in the last week, were the last straw for the administration.
Writing in her Substack, Vance explained, "So why fire her, and why now? Many people suggest it was her handling of the Epstein files, which was clearly a mess.
"Or could it be last week’s reporting from Carol Leonnig, which revealed some of what Trump fought hard in court to keep private, namely details of the documents he retained during the classified documents investigation, which we discussed here? Trump could have found a reason to fire Bondi on virtually any day of her time in office. So it’s interesting that it happened on this particular timeline."
Federal prosecutors are currently investigating whether Trump showed a classified map to people on his plane following his first term in the Oval Office. The release of the January 13, 2023 briefing memo could, Vance suggested, have been the last straw.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic Party representative, had also demanded additional details from Bondi over the memo and other documents.
"Whatever the reason it happened now, this outcome was preordained from the moment she took office. Donald Trump routinely asks his attorneys general to stretch and bend, if not break, the rule of law. Bondi was compliant," Vance wrote. "When asked to prosecute the president’s enemies, she did.
"The disastrous indictments of Jim Comey and Letitia James were two examples. When it came to the president’s friends, she appears to have complied as well. The investigation into Border Czar Tom Homan, involving allegations that he took a $50,000 cash bribe in a Cava bag, simply disappeared. Every public servant has personal red lines.
"For Jeff Sessions, it was appointing a special counsel because he had a conflict of interest. For Bill Barr, it was leaving office before Donald Trump escalated his efforts to overturn the election on January 6. We do not really know what Pam Bondi’s line would have been because she never invoked it. Instead, the president fired her."