Donald Trump brutally ended Pam Bondi’s career as his attorney general while they rode in his limousine to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“I think it’s time,” Trump told Bondi, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He had in fact decided to fire her earlier in the week, but waited to do it in the back of the Beast, turning what is seen as an honor given to a chosen few—a one-on-one in his limousine—into a humiliation ritual.
Bondi, 60, was forced to enter the Supreme Court knowing her time was up. The Journal reported that the two had discussed her leaving since January. Even after she was fired in the limousine, she begged to stay, sources told the paper.
But she did not even get the sort of made-up job given to Kristi Noem when she was removed as Homeland Security Secretary. Bondi now enters history as having the shortest tenure of a Senate-confirmed attorney general since 1975, when Gerald Ford forced out Richard Nixon’s final appointee, Richard Saxbe.
Trump, it has been reported, was displeased with Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the lack of progress on prosecutions of his perceived political enemies, like former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bondi, according to the report, said to others that some of Trump’s demands weren’t possible and were “outside of things she could do.”
Whether Bondi was talking about actions she could not legally do is unclear. The Department of Justice, where Bondi will stay through the month, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, nor did the White House.
Bondi has yet to describe the specifics of what’s next for her. In a social media post, she said she was “thrilled” about her to-be-revealed private sector work.
“Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration,” she wrote on X.
During that time, Bondi is expected to return to Washington to testify about the Epstein files before the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed her.
Bondi “will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath,” ranking member Robert Garcia said Thursday. “She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell.”
