Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino -- all three are caught up in an internal feud over the now-you-see-them-now-you-don't files of the felonious financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
But Pam Bondi is ultimately responsible. Her botched handling of this issue combined with her other disasters mean she shouldn't continue holding the highest law enforcement position in the United States.
Bondi has racked up a string of embarrassments for the president that, despite a supportive post, President Donald Trump won't endure long.
First of all, DOJ has done a disastrous job defending the administration in court, winning just 31 percent of the time. If the first duty of the department is to win court cases, Bondi's leadership has a record of failure that is probably worse than any attorney general in DOJ history.
Meanwhile, Bondi embarrassed the Trump administration by boasting about things she plainly didn't achieve. After just a few months on the job, Bondi claimed her anti-fentanyl operations saved 258 million lives -- a number that is roughly three-quarters of the entire U.S. population.
She boasted that she would end weaponization at the Justice Department then used her power to fire dozens of non-partisan career employees to settle scores with whomever she chose. Another batch was just terminated last week.
She claimed about her prosecution of Kilmer Abrego Garcia that, "This is what American justice looks like," just before the case was exposed as a sham in court.
She is fighting a whistleblower accusing DOJ of planning to break the law intentionally when faced with court orders.
She is facing serious ethics complaints in Florida filed by over 70 people, including lawyers, law professors, and retired judges that accuse her of firing employees who refused to engage in unethical conduct.
And she promised us the Epstein client list. Now her lies about it are turning President Donald Trump's own base against him.
The facts are already well known and have been highlighted by Fox News, where Bondi was once a regular commentator. In February, the attorney general was asked a very specific question and gave a very specific answer on video: "DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen?" Her response was crystal clear: "It's sitting on my desk right now."
Now, pay close attention to what the official Justice Department memo said as Bondi ended her much bragged about transparency regarding Epstein: investigators found "no incriminating 'client list.'"
The memo didn't say there was no Epstein client list. It said there was no "incriminating" client list. It was the classic lawyer's dodge. Insert a word that you can define yourself -- "It didn't look 'incriminating' to me" -- and now you can sound like a list that exists doesn't really exist at all. But remember, it's an "incriminating" list that doesn't exist, not a list. This is the lie inside the lie.
And Bondi is compounding it. She is allowing the public impression that there is no list at all -- "incriminating" or otherwise. She said that when she referred to the list she meant the file.
Bondi's credibility is shot at a time when DOJ's ability to defend the country and the administration are at a critical juncture. Many of the key issues concerning Trump's power have yet to come before the Supreme Court.
- Can Trump end birthright citizenship?
- Can Trump invoke the Alien Enemies Act to assist in speeding up his deportations?
- Can he cancel spending mandated by Congress?
- Will he be able to make all the independent agencies created by Congress dependent on him instead?
- Should the incompetently crafted Abrego Garcia case be withdrawn so he can be deported?
This is no time to have an incompetent hand at the helm. It's also no time for internal squabbling. If the attorney general can't work with the FBI leadership, we are all in trouble, yet the deputy FBI director is headed for the exit, and the director might not survive if Bondi does. Bondi is chiefly tormented about leaks rather than trying to mend fences.
It's time for Bondi to get out before she is shoved out. American law enforcement needs more bang and less bunk.
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.