Pam Bondi has recently been in a lot of trouble within President Donald Trump's own leadership. The reason is the developments surrounding the financier and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 after being accused of, among other things, sex trafficking and abuse of a large number of minors.
Despite Bondi having promised to disclose documents that are said to contain Epstein's "customer list", with names of people who are said to have participated in the abuse, the Department of Justice announced last week that no such list exists.
The message sparked strong anger among leading figures in the Trump movement. Heavy Maga activists have called on Bondi to resign, after she got into conflict with FBI chief Kash Patel and deputy chief Dan Bongino over the handling of the Epstein documents.
The discontent is rooted in the Maga movement's expectations that Epstein's customer list would reveal names from the Democrats' leadership and the liberal elite in the USA. But even Donald Trump has been identified as a person "in Epstein's circle" - among other things, Trump and Britain's Prince Andrew are among the celebrities who have participated in Epstein's large parties.
Showed loyalty
Pam Bondi has created so much doubt and chaos around all this, says conservative media personality Glenn Beck in a video he posted on X.
- Either this is a big cover-up or she has messed up, he continues.
Pam Bondi, a 59-year-old lawyer from Florida, was a Democrat when she was young but switched parties to the Republicans in 2000. She supported Trump already in the 2016 election and has often defended him, among other things in the talk show "The Five" on the right-wing channel Fox News.
Bondi showed her loyalty to Trump by spreading his false accusations that Joe Biden won the 2020 election through fraud. She also stood by Trump's side during the trial in 2023, where he was prosecuted for paying "hush money" to people who knew about his sexual relationship with a porn star. As a thank you, Pam Bondi was rewarded with a minister of justice post when Trump moved into the White House in January this year.
Represented Pfizer
But the most die-hard Maga supporters have long been skeptical of Pam Bondi. She has been criticized for not defending Trump supporters who participated in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In addition, she has as a lawyer represented the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer - a company that is disliked by parts of Trump's vaccine-skeptical electorate.
Bondi is also considered to have too close ties to the old Republican establishment that has been critical of Trump, especially Florida's former governor Jeb Bush.
Trump himself, however, stands by his minister of justice and has urged his supporters to let Bondi "do her job".
The president forgives her only because she is a loyal soldier, because he likes her and wants to avoid the troublesome process of replacing her, said influential conservative media personality Megyn Kelly in her podcast on Monday.
Jonas Cullberg/TT
Timeline: The Maga conflict over Jeffrey Epstein
TT
July 2019: Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein is prosecuted for human trafficking in New York, accused of exploiting dozens of underage girls. Shortly afterwards, he is found dead in his cell. According to the coroner, the cause of death was suicide.
August 2019: Donald Trump accuses Bill and Hillary Clinton of being involved in Epstein's death. Maga accounts on social media claim that liberal celebrities participated in the billionaire's abuse.
January 2024: Court documents that identify people in Epstein's circle are made public. Among the names are Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, but neither of them is accused of any crime.
February 2025: Fox News asks Minister of Justice Pam Bondi if she will disclose a rumored "customer list" with names of people who were involved in Epstein's abuse. Bondi replies that the list is on her desk. Later, she will say that she meant court documents about Epstein, not the alleged customer list.
July 2025: The Department of Justice says that Epstein did not have a customer list and that no more documents related to the investigation will be made public. Media personalities on the right are furious. Deputy FBI chief Dan Bongino is considering resigning. Trump calls for calm.
