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New interim Attorney General Todd Blanche has insisted that his predecessor, Pam Bondi, was not fired over her handling of the Epstein case, adding that no other files related to the disgraced financier will be released.
Blanche was named interim AG on Tuesday after President Donald Trump decided to fire Bondi. Trump is said to have previously expressed frustration that Bondi hadn’t prosecuted some of his political enemies — including New York Attorney General Leticia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump reportedly told Bondi she was being fired while the two were on their way to the Supreme Court. The president told Bondi, “I think it’s time,” and informed her she was going to be replaced. He reportedly denied her request to remain in the job until summer.
Bondi became the face of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case in February 2025 when she claimed that she had Epstein’s client list “sitting on her desk” before later backtracking and insisting that there was no list.
Congress forced the Trump administration to release all of the Epstein documents, but the AG’s office dragged its feet and, according to some critics, still has not released everything it has regarding the Epstein investigation.
Under Blanche, it’s likely any remaining files will remain buried, as he is now saying there will be no further Epstein document releases.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters asked Blanche on Thursday if he agreed that the Epstein files were handled poorly.
“First of all, I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files,” Blanche said. “And so, look, the Epstein files has been a saga that’s lasted for the past year. And what happened when the president signed the transparency act is that the Department of Justice has now released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga.”
Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have refuted the Trump administration’s claim that all of the Epstein files have been released.
Echoing Trump’s own view on the matter, Blanche said he thinks it’s time for the Department of Justice to move on from Epstein.
“So I think to the extent the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” he said.
Watters then pressed Blanche on whether or not Epstein was working for or with a foreign intelligence service while he was alive.
“I have no idea if he was a spy. All I know is that we don’t have any evidence in the Epstein files that the FBI collected over 15 years that suggest that, Jesse. I wasn’t – I don’t know. I wasn’t part of the original prosecution team. Neither was Attorney General Bondi,” he said.
Blanche then went on to insist that Trump — who had a long, documented friendship with Epstein — was the only person to try to hold him accountable.
“There’s only one president that’s held Mr. Epstein accountable, and that’s Donald J. Trump. During his first administration, that was the administration that prosecuted him, and during this administration, it’s the administration that’s been totally transparent and released all the files,” Blanche said. “And no matter how much criticism people want to make about the Epstein files, that is indisputable.”
“Ok. I’m not sure you totally get what people feel about that,” Watters told Blanche before moving to another topic.
Trump has never been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and says he broke off their friendship long before Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.
Blanche previously interviewed Epstein’s associate, child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. During their meeting in July, Maxwell told Blanche that she never saw Trump engage in anything illegal during the time she knew him. She was then allowed to move to a lower-security prison facility where she can play with dogs and order her own food.
Blanche’s ascension is just the latest in what may become a major shakeup across the Trump administration.
About a month before Bondi was fired, Trump fired then–Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, replacing her with the current DHS head, Markwayne Mullin.
U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George has also been fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and rumors abound that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard may be next on Trump’s chopping block.
