The outgoing DOJ chief faced mounting scrutiny over inconsistent messaging and unanswered questions tied to the late sex offender
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has dismissed reports that President Donald Trump fired former AG Pam Bondi over her botched handling of the Epstein files.
Blanche made the remarks on Fox News on Thursday, hours after Trump announced that Bondi, who had served since early 2025, was out. The president called her a “Great American Patriot” but offered no explanation for the dismissal.
“I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – that anything that happened to her – had anything to do with the Epstein files,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding the late sex offender’s ties to powerful figures.
Blanche also rejected reports that Trump believed Bondi had tipped off Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell about an FBI plan to release files on an alleged Chinese spy with whom the lawmaker had ties a decade earlier. Swalwell has also denied the allegation.
The New York Times earlier reported that Trump was frustrated with Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files, her shortcomings in communications, and a perceived lack of aggressiveness in pursuing his political foes.
The Epstein saga became the hallmark of Bondi’s tenure, with the former AG tasked with delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to release the potentially explosive files. In February 2025, she publicly claimed that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
However, a DOJ memo released in July concluded that investigators had found “no incriminating ‘client list,’” causing major public backlash, which was only exacerbated by Trump’s own attempts to downplay the scandal.
While the DOJ released several large batches of Epstein-related documents, they were heavily redacted and yielded little new information. The department also faced criticism over reports that some victims’ identities were exposed while alleged perpetrators remained shielded.
In February, as Bondi was grilled in Congress by lawmakers from both parties, she delivered what were widely seen as sketchy and dodgy responses – at one point deflecting a question on Epstein by declaring that “the Dow is over 50,000 right now.”
Even some Trump allies blasted Bondi over the Epstein files. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said she “completely whiffed” on the matter and that there is no use in pretending otherwise.
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