Donald Trump canceled Pam Bondi. Who will be the new attorney general?

Pam Bondi has been dismissed as US Attorney General, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday. Todd Blanche, Bondi's current deputy, will temporarily hold the office of attorney general. This is the second cabinet member dismissed from her position recently.

“Pam Bondi is a great American patriot and loyal friend who has devotedly served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam has done a wonderful job overseeing our country's massive fight against crime, which has seen murders drop to their lowest levels since 1900.” – Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

“We love Pam; she will transition to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector, which will be announced soon, and our Deputy Attorney General, the very talented and respected legal mind Todd Blanche, will take over as Acting Attorney General,” the president said.

Earlier, Fox News reported that the president wanted Bondi to remain in the administration, but in a different role.

The position of attorney general is one of the most important positions in the president's office. According to custom, he supervises the Ministry of Justice independently of the head of state and directs federal investigations.

As attorney general, Bondi attempted to prosecute Trump's alleged opponents and find evidence that he won the 2020 presidential election. She also oversaw the firings of many prosecutors and other employees who investigated Trump and his allies in recent years. The ministry she manages even displayed a large banner with the president's photo, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the media, Trump has been unhappy with Bondi for several months due to her department's handling of the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “WSJ” wrote that in private conversations the president complained that Bondi was weak and ineffective. He also maintained that she had acted too slowly in initiating criminal proceedings against those the president considered opponents.

In February, Bondi defended herself in the House Judiciary Committee against accusations of covering up the Epstein case and endangering the sex offender's victims. She often answered by shouting over and insulting those who asked.

The ministry led by Bondi was criticized by politicians of both parties – on the one hand for insufficiently protecting the identities of Epstein's victims, and on the other for withholding the publication of some documents, including interrogation reports of a woman who accused Trump of sexual assault when she was 13 years old (the testimony was eventually withdrawn).

Bondi is the latest member of the Trump administration to be removed from office recently. On March 5, Trump announced the resignation of the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem.

Bondi, 60, who was the first woman in history to head the Florida State Attorney's Office from 2011 to 2019, has been a close supporter of Trump for years. In 2015, she was one of the first public figures to support the then candidate for head of state.

During Trump's first presidential term, she was appointed to a government commission dedicated to combating fentanyl and other opioids, and was one of the lawyers defending the president during his first impeachment. In 2020, she joined the effort to overturn the election results, claiming that Trump had won it.

From Washington Natalia Dziurdzińska (PAP)

Sun/ akl/