Attorney General Pam Bondi has quietly relocated to one of several military bases in the Washington area where other Trump administration officials also live, after facing threats from drug cartels and critics of her actions in handling the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to people familiar with the situation.
Ms. Bondi moved from an apartment in the city within the past month in response to an array of threats flagged to her staff by federal law enforcement, these people said, including an uptick in criticism of Ms. Bondi, and threats relayed by officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
One catalyst was an increase in threats following the capture and prosecution of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in January, according to a senior official with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.
Ms. Bondi is the latest administration official to move into heavily guarded quarters at military facilities in or near the nation’s capital after citing danger from criminals, adversaries overseas and protesters.
Other officials who have relocated include Stephen Miller, the president’s top domestic policy adviser and the architect of his hard-line immigration policy; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Kristi Noem, the exiting homeland security secretary; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Daniel P. Driscoll, the Army secretary, has also moved into military housing, as has Navy Secretary John Phelan, whose home in Washington was damaged in a fire last year.
It is not clear how much, if anything, officials are paying to stay at some of the most historic and best-maintained properties in the government’s possession. A spokeswoman for Ms. Noem, who was recently ousted from her job by President Trump, told The New York Times that she was paying “fair-market rent” for her accommodations last year.
A spokesman for Ms. Bondi did not comment on the matter, other than to ask that The Times not publish the specific location of the base.
A handful of officials have made use of military facilities in this way over the past several decades, including Jim Mattis, who served as defense secretary for Mr. Trump during his first term, and Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. Robert M. Gates, who served as defense secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, lived in Navy housing in the Washington area for much of his tenure.
But this appears to be the first administration to take such widespread advantage of taxpayer-funded military housing to accommodate political appointees who do not have a direct connection to the military, according to former officials and historians.
There is precedent for an elected official to take over military quarters. In 1974, Congress authorized the vice president to reside at the Naval Observatory, which for 40 years had been the official home of the chief of naval operations.
Since then, the Navy’s top admirals have typically lived in Tingey House, a historic property across town at the Washington Navy Yard.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice for The Times and has also written about gun violence, civil rights and conditions in the country’s jails and prisons.
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