Attorney general was key part of effort to go after enemies but even she could not satisfy whims of mercurial president
Pam Bondi’s swift dismissal on Thursday underscores a reality that has met Trump loyalists from Jeff Sessions to Kristi Noem – no amount of loyalty is enough to save oneself from being dumped by Donald Trump.
Since the president assumed office last year, there have been few people more important to his effort to remake government than Bondi, his longtime friend.
Trump pledged that retribution would be the hallmark of his second term, and Bondi was the chief enforcer from her first day in office. As attorney general, she obliterated the longstanding norm that the justice department be apolitical and keep the White House at arm’s length. She oversaw purges of career employees who had been assigned to work on the criminal cases against Trump as well as scores of career lawyers with irreplaceable expertise. She also oversaw politically motivated prosecutions against Trump’s political enemies, including the former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general, Letitia James.
“Pam Bondi took a sledgehammer to the justice department and its workforce. The DoJ’s independence, integrity and workforce have degraded more under her leadership than at any other time during the department’s 155-year history,” said Stacey Young, a former justice department lawyer who leads Justice Connection, an advocacy group for DoJ alumni.
