Bondi’s Ouster Paves Way for an Even More Trump-Appeasing DOJ

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s removal is raising concerns that her successor will escalate attempts to evade institutional norms and ethics to satisfy President Donald Trump’s expectations for running the Justice Department as an extension of the White House.

Current and former DOJ attorneys and others close to the administration expect the department to continue pushing to prosecute the president’s perceived enemies and run up against the same challenges Bondi faced: skeptical grand juries, slow proceedings, and failed prosecutions.

Some of those lawyers, most of whom spoke anonymously, said they’re bracing for a future law enforcement chief who’d try even harder to overcome a judicial system that’s largely thwarted Bondi’s attempts at sticking criminal charges to the president’s adversaries.

Although a more aggressive attorney general’s pursuits may remain stymied in court, the shift would likely force out more political and career leaders and line attorneys who’ve reached their ethical line, the attorneys said.

Speculation mounted Thursday about potential Bondi replacements, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Washington US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), and about DOJ’s next possible targets—Jan. 6 congressional committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson and former CIA Director John Brennan.

Some former department officials—including those who’ve served under Trump—said they view the attorney general switch as more about optics, such as finding an improved public messenger, than substance. During her 14 months in charge, Bondi moved eagerly to advance Trump’s retribution campaign, they said. Anyone the president chooses next will likely show the same commitment and have a determined partner in FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate Trump’s foes, they said.

Others say they expect Trump to tap a new attorney general with the ability to work behind the scenes in securing convictions of top targets in ways that Bondi was unable to do.

“It seems that this time around a lot of the cabinet secretaries are expected to make their presences known to Trump directly—see and be seen at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, go on Fox, etc.,” said Mike Fragoso, a former chief nominations counsel to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“But I think for AG—perhaps more than anywhere else—he wants results,” Fragoso added. “So I think a successor who’s perceived to be in the building doggedly supervising activities that advance the president’s priorities would be well received by Trump.”

Some career and even politically appointed officials at the department received news of Bondi’s exit with alarm, some of the lawyers said. They’re concerned a new leader would be more intent on bending the department’s norms to fulfill the president’s wishes, such as finding a US attorney willing to try indicting vocal Trump critic Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for alleged mortgage fraud, or ramping up media leak probes.

It also remains to be seen if Trump will find anyone for AG who can prove his preferred cases before juries—such as prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. His own politically appointed US attorney on those matters was ousted after finding the evidence too weak, and judges and grand jurors have put up various roadblocks.

“Any new appointee will run into the same obstacles that Bondi’s DOJ encountered—namely, an understaffed and demoralized department, an increasingly skeptical judiciary, and weak cases that would be a challenge for prosecutors under any circumstances,” said Jeffrey Bellin, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School and a former prosecutor in the DC US attorney’s office.

Republicans in Congress are poised to swiftly approve whomever Trump chooses. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said his panel “stands ready to advance President Trump’s next Attorney General nominee.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the committee, said he’s pushing for a nominee more independent than Bondi but expects Trump wants an “unyielding loyalist” in the role.

With Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche rising to acting attorney general for now, thousands of rank-and-file attorneys and agents remain in limbo over their next permanent boss.

Trump’s choice for Bondi’s replacement will send an important message to DOJ line attorneys about where the department’s “values, standards, and expectations are going,” said Benjamin Grimes, former deputy director of DOJ’s Professional Responsibility Advisory Office, which advises attorneys on policies and professional conduct.

“The standard for acceptable performance is shifting further away from legal and ethical obligation and toward political alignment,” Grimes said in an email. “Attorneys who are weighing whether to raise a difficult ethics issue, push back on a supervisor, or take a position that complicates a high-profile matter will make those decisions differently when they believe the institution is less likely to support them.”