Pam Bondi is a staunch Donald Trump loyalist, so of course she landed a spot in his cabinet, but despite Bondi’s longstanding friendship with the president, she wasn’t his first pick for attorney general. It was only after former congressman Matt Gaetz’s past scandals were laid bare for the world to see, leading to him forfeiting his nomination, that Trump tapped Bondi for the high-ranking position. Gaetz stood accused of some pretty serious crimes by the House Ethics Committee, including statutory rape, paying sex workers, and sex trafficking, to name but a few. He has denied all the allegations, but they sunk his chances of becoming attorney general. 

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Bondi, who’s had to navigate some unpleasantries of her own, mostly thanks to her longtime association with Trump, stood next in line for the nomination. While she obviously wasn’t the president’s first choice, it seems that Bondi wasn’t offended enough to turn down the offer when it came her way mere hours after Gaetz confirmed he was out. However, having been the divisive politician’s second choice likely does not bode well for Bondi’s future in MAGA world, especially since her first couple of weeks in office yielded some embarrassing moments.

Trump announced Bondi’s nomination on Truth Social, writing, “I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” (via CNN). Bondi made a few headline-grabbing blunders almost immediately, most notably relating to the release of declassified files involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Making these kinds of mistakes so early in Trump’s second tenure might be a sign that she could be iced out of the president’s inner circle just as quickly as she made her way in.

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Pam Bondi’s name quickly became synonymous with the declassified Jeffrey Epstein files, which every reporter was dying to get their hands on. While President Donald Trump promised the swift release of the files once he reclaimed office, people were getting impatient near the end of February 2025 when they were still yet to make an appearance. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t necessarily members of the Democratic Party that were making the most noise about the lack of information from the Trump administration either; it was Republican lawmakers who took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to put pressure on Bondi to release the files. 

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The queen of controversy, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, took to the platform to criticize the AG’s apparent lack of action. “Today would be a great day for @AGPamBondi to release the Epstein Files. The truth will set us free!” she wrote in response to a tweet from Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, which questioned when Bondi was planning on releasing the files. “@AGPamBondi We saw over the weekend you are reviewing all files from JFK to Epstein! We are ALL anticipating their release! When will they be declassified and available to the public?” Luna’s post read. 

Senator Mike Lee also chimed in, reminding Trump’s AG that the American people deserved to know the contents of the files. It’s not clear why Bondi kept sitting on the documents, but all the backlash from her fellow Republicans wasn’t exactly a good look. Everyone knows that Trump has a delicate ego and does not take kindly to criticism. His chosen AG has drawn plenty of it to his administration with the Epstein files.

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When Pam Bondi did finally release the Jeffrey Epstein files, it blew up in her face when reporters quickly realized that the contents presented to them were already available in the public sphere. Bondi’s files were nothing but recycled information, and it was a very bad look for the attorney general — and President Donald Trump. If only Bondi hadn’t made such a big show of presenting the binders with the information to reporters and influencers alike, the scathing headlines might have been less embarrassing. Photographs of the Epstein binder, named “The Epstein Files: Part I,” being handed over to right-wing social media influencers quickly made the rounds on February 27, 2025. 

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But not long after the beaming group departed from the White House, some took to social media to let their followers know that the files contained absolutely nothing new. Popular right-wing YouTuber Jeremy Hambly took to X to directly accuse Bondi of withholding information. “She already KNEW what was in the binders. She lied to the American People. She should Resign,” he wrote. Right-wing commentator Liz Wheeler also told her followers that the files contained no new information.

Things really heated up when prominent Trump supporters like Laura Loomer (a right-wing conspiracy theorist who has a strange relationship with the president) offered similar criticism. “There is one person who takes the blame for what happened today. It’s @PamBondi. I think she should resign,” she wrote, calling the attorney general “a total liar.” One can’t imagine Trump being very happy with all this backlash, and if anyone bears the brunt of the president’s discontent over the matter, it’ll be Bondi.

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We can’t help but wonder whether the delayed release of the Jeffrey Epstein files has something to do with the fact that Donald Trump used to be friends with the convicted sex offender. His name made an appearance in the initial files released in 2024, and there’s no telling where else it might pop up in the documents that the president has already vowed to declassify. Trump ensuring that Pam Bondi only provides the public with the parts that don’t incriminate him seems likely, given his penchant for evading the law.

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Should the AG release information about Epstein that indicates the president took part in some of the disgraced businessman’s horrifying crimes, it’ll be a disaster for the entire Trump administration. The divisive commander-in-chief himself hinted that he’s not entirely comfortable with releasing the documents during an interview in the lead-up to the 2024 election. When asked whether he would declassify the 9/11 files and those pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Trump gave an easy “yes.” When asked about the Epstein files, though, he wavered. 

“I guess I would,” Trump began (via MSNBC), before launching into an explanation of why it might not be a good idea: “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.” Bondi’s subsequent assurance to Fox News (via X) that she received a “truckload” more files related to Epstein from the FBI might make the president nervous. No doubt his AG will find herself out in the cold should she fail to redact any information there may or may not be about the president’s relationship with Epstein.

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If certain reports are to be believed, Pam Bondi evoked the fury of senior White House staffers when she failed to inform them that the event influencers were attending there would involve handing over binders of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Sources indicated to ABC News that the AG thought handing them out would be a fun surprise. Instead, it turned into a media tempest — not exactly what she was going for. In the aftermath, White House officials had to reach out to disgruntled influencers in order to quell the brewing storm. 

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Jessica Reed Kraus heeded calls to avoid harsh criticism on social media, calling the presentation of the binders “a powerful shift” in an Instagram post, adding, “Trump walked in and told us we are the most trusted media now. And that he counts our efforts as the reason he won.” Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz found the outrage among right and left wingers quite humorous, admitting to CNN, “I have never seen the Left and the Right come together in a moment on a debacle,” (via The Hill). 

Likewise, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt found herself having to explain the fiasco to reporters, telling ABC News, “Everyone is working together as one unified team at the direction of President Trump. Any notion to the contrary is completely false.” Bondi probably isn’t her favorite person, which is a precarious situation to be in, given the press secretary’s close relationship with the president. Further, sources warning that White House staffers didn’t hesitate to throw Bondi under the bus when things went south isn’t a very good sign that she’ll stay in his inner circle for long.

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In the aftermath of the Jeffrey Epstein files debacle, Pam Bondi desperately attempted to do some damage control, but it wasn’t very effective. Instead, she managed to make herself look completely incompetent, suggesting that it wasn’t only the public who had been misled but that she, too, was duped by the FBI. This claim did not exactly instill confidence in her abilities. In a letter she directed to FBI Director Kash Patel, Bondi expressed her frustration at not being given all the information the agency had on Epstein, asserting that she had repeatedly asked for the complete documents and was assured that what she gave the media was everything. How the AG could have believed this to be true when a couple of Instagram influencers managed to figure out that vital information was missing in less than a day remains a mystery.

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Making an appearance on Fox News amid the media tempest, Bondi admitted that “thousands of pages of documents” were missing from the binders she’d given to the influencers at the White House (via X). She also confessed to being made aware of the absent documentation by an unnamed source less than a day before handing them out, which begs the question: Why did she go ahead knowing she was essentially misleading not only the influencers, but the American public? 

Having said that, Bondi criticized the Biden administration for not releasing the documents to the public and reiterated how the Trump administration is all about transparency; ironic, given that the AG herself wasn’t forthcoming until she publicly got called out. We can’t speak to the president’s state of mind, but our guess is he was none too pleased with how all of this turned out.

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