Pam Bondi, who served as President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Justice Department for his second term, is out as attorney general.

“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform after multiple outlets reported he’d fired her.

“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” he continued.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will become acting attorney general, Trump said. Blanche thanked the president for the opportunity and said Bondi led the DOJ “with strength and conviction.”

“We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe,” he said in a statement.

Bondi’s tenure as attorney general will be remembered as one in which she stayed loyal to the president, seen most apparent in her handling of the files related to the late child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The DOJ released the documents in several phases, with redactions that protected powerful people — including Trump himself at times — while revealing the identities of some survivors.

The attorney general was steadfast in childishly defending the department’s handling of the files, refusing at one particular congressional hearing to turn around and face several women in attendance who had survived Epstein’s abuse.

But the president reportedly grew frustrated that Bondi didn’t handle the files better. He also has publicly complained before that the attorney general was not aggressive enough in prosecuting his perceived political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“No one can be loyal enough. No one can punish Trump’s enemies fast enough,” Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert, who testified against Bondi’s confirmation, said in a statement. “Pam Bondi took the DOJ in a lawless, non-independent, shameful direction, and the institution of justice has suffered as a result.”

Bondi had also been losing standing among Republicans in Congress. Last month, five GOP members of the House Oversight Committee unexpectedly joined Democrats in a vote to subpoena her to testify under oath about the Epstein files. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle stressed that Bondi is still expected to show up for the April 14 deposition.

“My subpoena still stands,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said on X. “When the Oversight Committee moved to subpoena Bondi, I did it by name, not by or not as the sitting Attorney General of the U.S.”

Despite the rumors of her impending ouster, including reports in January that Trump was repeatedly complaining about her to his aides, the president still praised the attorney general Thursday as his friend.

It’s unclear who Trump will pick to permanently replace Bondi, though he has reportedly floated the idea of choosing Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York and the current administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Zeldin himself has not confirmed such reports.

Democrats and legal advocates celebrated Bondi’s ouster, while warning that the Trump administration’s corruption does not end with her.

“Bondi’s removal does not repair the damage inflicted on people living in America, civil rights, due process, or the integrity of our legal system. And the naming of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting head will neither promote a return to the rule of law nor be a move toward re-establishing trust in the department and its leaders,” said Democracy Forward president Skye Perryman, whose legal nonprofit has brought many cases challenging Bondi’s decisions as attorney general.

“For lawyers and law firms who found it expedient to try to stay in the president and Bondi’s good graces ... today’s events should be the latest wake-up call,” Perryman continued. “People are going to overcome the generational threat to our nation that the president and his administration have created; history is watching what we all do in this time.”

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