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

The man set to lead the Department of Justice after Pam Bondi’s departure mounted the defense of Donald Trump through his criminal prosecutions and the weeks-long hush money trial that led to the first ever conviction of a president.

Todd Blanche, who Trump appointed as deputy attorney general, will take on the role of acting attorney general following Bondi’s ousting.

Alex Woodward takes a closer look at the man now calling the shots at the DOJ:

Pam Bondi reportedly begged Donald Trump not to fire her from her role as Attorney General.

“She was unhappy and tried to change his mind,” a source close to the matter told The Daily Mail.

The president informed Bondi of his decision shortly before he delivered his primetime address to the nation on the Iran War on Wednesday evening, the source said.

The announcement of Bondi’s departure was reportedly due to be made Friday, though it was brought forward after extensive speculation in the media overnight, the source added.

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: