President Donald Trump has reportedly been souring on Attorney General Pam Bondi over a host of issues.
The president has griped to aides in the past few weeks that Bondi isn’t doing enough to prosecute his perceived political enemies, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing administration officials and others familiar with his grousing.
Trump, 79, has also complained that the government’s handling of files on dead sex predator Jeffrey Epstein has been insufficient, as have her efforts to try to prove his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Some administration officials said Trump has ramped up his criticisms of Bondi, 60, to get the Justice Department to move more quickly.
The Justice Department has brought charges against several Trump antagonists, but prosecutors have faced substantial setbacks.
The government is appealing November’s dismissals of its cases against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey after a judge ruled that Trump had illegally appointed Lindsey Halligan, the attorney who obtained those indictments.
Since that ruling, the Trump administration has tried and failed on two separate occasions to persuade a grand jury to indict James.
Meanwhile, John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, was indicted in October for allegedly mishandling classified documents. A trial date has yet to be determined.
Yet another investigation was revealed on Sunday. The Justice Department is now probing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over comments he made to Congress about the bank’s building renovation.
According to Trump, Bondi is also coming up short when it comes to the Epstein files, which have long cast a shadow over his presidency. That the government has produced less than one percent of its files, despite a law requiring their release last month, has only intensified scrutiny over the Trump-Epstein relationship and the president’s handling of it.
The Journal cites two officials who said that Trump agreed with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ assessment to Vanity Fair that Bondi “whiffed” on the issue.
Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election has also led him to demand more from the Justice Department, according to the report.
Last month, Trump resorted to issuing a symbolic pardon of Tina Peters, the former Colorado county elections clerk convicted of seven state charges, including tampering with voting machines. Peters remains in prison serving a nine-year sentence.
Trump has occasionally confronted Bondi directly about his list of grievances, officials told the Journal.
When reached for comment, the White House provided statements from Trump, Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt—all praising Bondi.
“Pam is doing an excellent job,” said Trump.
“She has been my friend for many years,” he added. “Tremendous progress is being made against radical left lunatics who are good at only one thing, cheating in elections and the crimes they commit.”
The Justice Department, in a brief statement, did not address the substance of the Journal’s report, telling the Daily Beast merely that Bondi “is focused on executing President Trump’s directive to Make America Safe Again.”
The post Cabinet Member Panics as Trump Turns on Her Behind Closed Doors appeared first on The Daily Beast.
