Trump on Bondi’s ouster: ‘She will be transitioning to a much needed … job in the private sector’
Donald Trump has just released a statement on his ouster of attorney general Pam Bondi, saying on Truth Social:
Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.
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, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Key events
Meanwhile, Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican and one of the most vocal GOP critics of the Jeffrey Epstein files, said she would welcome Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, as the next attorney general, amid reports that he would take over the justice department permanently.
Writing on X, Mace said Bondi “handled the Epstein Files in a terrible manner and made this situation far worse than it had to be for President Trump”.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a Democratic representative from Florida, released a statement noting that Bondi is still expected to testify before the House oversight committee, noting that her ouster “does not get her out of that bipartisan, lawful subpoena. We will see her soon.”
Reactions are starting to come in on Pam Bondi’s ouster as attorney general, with Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House oversight committee, saying:
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been leading a White House cover-up of the Epstein files. She has weaponized the Department of Justice to protect Donald Trump and put survivors in harm’s way by exposing their identities.
She will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath. She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell.
Oversight Democrats have been leading serious investigations into Bondi and Secretary Kristi Noem. If they think we are moving on because they were fired, they are gravely mistaken.
Trump taps Todd Blanche for acting attorney general
Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s new pick as the acting attorney general and the president’s former defense lawyer, has also released a statement following Pam Bondi’s ouster, saying:
Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship.
Thank you to President Trump for the trust and the opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General.
We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe.
Trump on Bondi’s ouster: ‘She will be transitioning to a much needed … job in the private sector’
Donald Trump has just released a statement on his ouster of attorney general Pam Bondi, saying on Truth Social:
Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900.
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, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Trump ousts attorney general Pam Bondi – report
Following reports from the New York Times and CNN on Wednesday that Donald Trump was planning to fire Pam Bondi, the attorney general has been ousted, according to a White House official, Reuters reports.
Trump is reported to have become frustrated over Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the prosecution of his political adversaries.
Trump has not yet released an official statement on Bondi’s reported firing.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
Mahmoud Khalil has asked Emil Bove, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and a current US circuit judge to step aside from an appellate panel weighing his deportation appeal.
According to Khalil’s lawyers, Bove, who was also previously the justice department’s principal associate deputy attorney general, “directed immigration enforcement investigations and decisions against student protestors on college campuses”.
They added that Bove’s work, including at Columbia University where Khalil graduated from, “demonstrated the existence, or at least the appearance of, a conflict of interest”.
The decision on whether to recuse himself from the third circuit court of appeals panel rests with Bove, the Associated Press reports.
Following the House session on Thursday morning over the Senate’s deal to fund the homeland security department, Virginia’s Democratic representative Don Beyer told reporters that he was pleased to see more Republicans gather behind the plan.
In response to whether House Republicans “caved”, Beyer said: “I’d rather say that they saw the wisdom of what was sent to them,” Politico reports.
Meanwhile, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called on House Republicans to “get to work and end the longest Republican shutdown in history,” adding that the “deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the DHS shutdown.”
Dan Sabbagh
Donald Trump has said the US will shortly achieve its objectives in its war against Iran, but it is not clear what exactly those objectives are.
The Guardian’s defense editor Dan Sabbagh has this analysis:
Eliminate Iran’s missile and drone threat:
In an eight-minute video released on 28 February, Trump promised that the US would “destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground”. Before the war Iran was estimated to have about 2,500 high-speed ballistic missiles and destroying the programme was a key goal for Israel too.
Iran’s missile launch rates have been reduced by about 90% and its long-term manufacturing capacity has been significantly degraded. However, Tehran has retained a continued, if modest, capacity to strike Israel and the Gulf, causing fear, damage and small numbers of casualties.
There have been seven to 19 waves of attacks a day on Israel by Iran since the fourth day of the war, according to the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies. The most heavily targeted Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates, said on Thursday its air defences had engaged 26 drones and 19 missiles from Iran.
However, sources told Reuters last week that the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about a third of Iran’s missile arsenal. On Wednesday Trump said the US was “hurting their … missile programme at levels never seen before” and that Iran’s missiles and drone launches had been “dramatically curtailed” – a notable softening of his opening position.
For the full analysis, click here:
Chris Stein
A second Republican senator spoke out in defense of Nato on Thursday, joining Mitch McConnell and the Democrats, after Donald Trump said that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance after it refused to take part in the joint assault with Israel against Iran.
“Nato stood by America when we were under attack and came to our aid after the September 11th attacks. Their soldiers fought and died alongside our troops in Afghanistan,” said Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who co-chair the Senate Nato observer group.
“Any president that contemplates attempting to withdraw from NATO is not only fulfilling Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping’s greatest dreams but would be undermining America’s own national security interests.”
On Wednesday, McConnell, former Senate Republican leader, along with Chris Coons, a Democrat, said in a joint statement: “Nato troops fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq alongside American forces. The United States must not take this sacrifice – nor our allies’ commitment to make it again – lightly.
“Alliance disputes are as old as the alliance itself. Americans are safer when Nato is strong and united. It is in our interest for all allies to tend this unity with care.” McConnell and Coons are the top Republican and Democrat, respectively, on the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee.
Read the full report here:
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, criticized the House Republicans today for not taking up a bill to fund key subagencies at the DHS, despite announcing an agreement yesterday to move forward with the Senate-passed legislation.
The minority leader said GOP lawmakers need “to get to work”, while laying blame for the historic shutdown at Republicans’ feet.
Trump says he will sign order to pay all DHS employees
Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order to pay all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees. However, it’s unclear what funds he plans to use in order to fund the affected subagencies, which include the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), and whether this would include federal immigration enforcement –which has been largely insulated from ongoing shutdown thanks to a multi-billion dollar infusion in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Today’s announcement comes after the president signed an order last week to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
On Truth Social, Trump also praised congressional Republicans, despite the fact the House did not take any action on the Senate-passed bill to end the historic partial shutdown.
House speaker Mike Johnson could now wait until lawmakers return from a two-week recess to advance legislation that his party previously rejected. A reminder this funding would withhold funding for ICE and border patrol. Republicans, instead, hope to underwrite federal immigration enforcement for three years through a reconciliation bill, that sidesteps the filibuster.
“Republicans are UNIFIED, and moving forward on a plan that will reload funding for our FANTASTIC Border Patrol and Immigration Enforcement Officers,” Trump wrote, while continuing to blame Democrats for the 48-day funding lapse.
Civil rights groups sue Trump administration over executive order to limit mail-in voting
Sam Levine
A coalition of civil rights groups sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying that a new executive order to limit mail-in voting is unconstitutional.
The order, which Trump signed on Tuesday, instructs the federal government to come up with a list of eligible citizens who can vote in each state. It also instructs the US Postal Service to only transmit mail-in ballots to people on that list.
“In effect, the Order seeks to interpose a federal screening regime between voters and the ballot box by empowering a federal mail carrier to withhold those voters’ ballots,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts.
“The Constitution forbids this attempted usurpation of power. The President’s role is to execute the laws enacted by Congress – not to create new ones. Because the Executive Order exceeds the President’s constitutional and statutory authority and intrudes upon powers reserved to Congress and the States, it is unlawful and must be set aside.”
Article I, section 4 of the constitution says that states have control over how elections are run, and authorizes Congress to pass laws for federal contests. The constitution gives the president no power over elections.
“We understand this order to be an illegal and unconstitutional attempt by the President to seize control of processes that are basically run by the states,” said Davin Rosborough, deputy director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, and a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the suit. “It’s a recipe for chaos and ultimately disenfranchisement.”
Read the full report here:
