Pam Bondi learned she was out as attorney general during a short limo ride with President Trump to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. "I think it's time," he told her, according to an account in the Wall Street Journal. The two briefly sat next to each other at the court before Trump changed seats, and he later rejected her request to stay until summer. The New York Times reports that Bondi suspected her days were numbered because Trump had been not-so-quietly complaining about her, but that she didn't expect her firing to come so soon, or so abruptly. The Times report similarly says Bondi unsuccessfully sought to stay until summer for a more "graceful exit," adding that she "grew emotional Wednesday in conversations with friends and colleagues after she realized she was out."
Trump made the move official the following day. Bondi regularly heaped effusive praise on Trump during her 14-month tenure and had launched investigations into his political enemies, though the investigations were deemed weak by many prosecutors and were often shot down by judges or grand juries, notes the Journal. The lack of success on that front, along with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, had prominent names pushing for her to go, including federal housing official Bill Pulte and Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, per the Times.
Bondi had an important ally in White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, but it wasn't enough, ultimately. "Some people close to Trump and Bondi say it wasn't a single issue that led to her dismissal but a steady drip of frustrations, including what Trump saw as a lack of positive news coverage on the Justice Department," per the Journal.
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