Pam Bondi breaks silence after Trump fired her and promoted Todd Blanche as interim Attorney General: Live updates – UK Times

Sexual abuse survivors of Jeffrey Epstein celebrated President Donald Trump’s dismissal of Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday, even as they worried about who might replace her.

Several spoke to The Independent’s Eric Garcia:

The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent Epstein survivors, who died last year, released a statement in response to Pam Bondi’s dismissal.

“Alliance to a corrupt agenda never serves you,” the family wrote. “Another one falls on the sword to protect the powerful! We hope she has the courage to testify and actually do right by survivors this time.”

Bondi is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on her handling of the Epstein files next month.

Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi after a tumultuous 14 months leading a radically transformed and politically driven Department of Justice.

Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general after Bondi’s departure.

Here’s the full story from Alex Woodward in case you missed it:

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Judiciary Committee, has said that whoever replaces Pam Bondi as Attorney General will “have to deal with some serious problems” at the DOJ.

“I think for anybody in that position in this administration, there is a terrible tension for them in order to keep the job,” Whitehouse told CNN.

“They have got to sacrifice their integrity and be willing to do gangster stuff, and that tends to crash into laws and department rules and conventions and ultimately, federal judges.”

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has claimed that Pam Bondi’s firing from her post had nothing to do with her handling of the Epstein files.

“I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – that anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files,” Blanche told Fox News Thursday night.

He went on to claim that the Justice Department had now “released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga.”

“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,” Blanche said.

A former FBI agent who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and was later made a senior advisor at the Justice Department has announced that he too is leaving the department, following the departure of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Today I resigned from my position at the U.S. Department of Justice,” Jared Lee Wise wrote on X.

“I returned to Washington to fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ against J6 defendants, but it became clear that this will only happen from outside of government. So I left and will do so.”

Wise was scheduled to go to trial 10 days before Donald Trump returned to the White House.

He had previously admitted to urging rioters to “kill” law enforcement at the Capitol on January 6, and faced six counts in connection with the riots.

Wise was pardoned by Donald Trump on his first day back in office, along with nearly every rioter charged in connection with the assault.

Read more here from Alex Woodward:

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has claimed Pam Bondi was fired by Donald Trump because she “had become a political liability.”

Speaking on her show The Ingraham Angle hours after Trump announced Bondi’s departure on Truth Social Thursday, Ingraham pointed to the handling of the Epstein files as the main reason for her exit.

“Mistakes and redactions in the Epstein files, and then a supposed mistake in information turned over recently to Hill Democrats,” she noted. “But, perhaps, the most scathing criticism of Bondi was about her handling of the Epstein files.”

Later in the show, Ingraham said she considered Bondi a friend.

“A lot of folks really like Pam Bondi. I consider her a friend. I think she is a patriot to this country. And she certainly has been extremely loyal to President Trump,” she said.

“But the frustrations on his part were impossible to ignore.”

Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb said he believed Donald Trump is targeting female members of his cabinet more harshly than male members.

“He doesn’t have the respect or the admiration for women that you would expect for somebody who holds this exalted office,” he told CNN Thursday evening.

Cobb pointed to other cabinet members, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that he believed “should be dismissed.”

Democratic congressman Ted Lieu issued a stark warning to other members of the Trump administration following the departure of Pam Bondi as Attorney General.

“Dear trump Cabinet: You may think you have impunity because dear leader will pardon you,” Lieu wrote on X.

“Think again. You never know when trump will capriciously throw you under the bus without a care for you ever again.

“I hope you think twice before violating the law. November is coming.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, the author of the legislation to release files to Jeffrey Epstein, pushed back on former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s praise of outgoing Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Pam Bondi will be known as one of the great crime fighters of our time,” Gaetz said. “She is a patriot who has all of our appreciation.”

Gaetz also praised acting attorney general Todd Blanche, Trump’s former lawyer, who is now deputy attorney general.

“Todd Blanche left his comfortable job at a major firm to defend President Trump against horrendous lawfare,” Gaetz said. “He has shown moral courage, strength and exquisite legal talent.”

Massie responded tersely. “April Fools was yesterday,” he said.

Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California led the discharge petition to release files related to Epstein