Contrarian Legal Contributors on Pam Bondi’s Ouster
She leaves a legacy that should make no one proud.
Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi this week, 14 months into her tenure at the Department of Justice, where she trampled longstanding norms and seemed to work not for the American people but for the president. Here, The Contrarian’s legal contributors react to Bondi’s dismissal.
“In a single year, Pamela Jo Bondi’s brazen, lawless tenure as Attorney General ‘lost’ the ‘trust [in the Department of Justice] that ha[d] been earned over generations’; ‘destroyed’ ‘the presumption of regularity’; and ‘lost the trust and confidence’ of legal communities and the public — according to various federal judges. Bondi should have to bear the shame and infamy her actions brought her for at least as long as the decades (if not more) it will take to rebuild the institutions she tore down.” — Leah Litman, professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School and co-host of Strict Scrutiny.
“Bondi acted and sounded more like a (not very good) press secretary than an attorney general — parroting political talking points, propaganda and pleading loyalty to Trump. She was fired because even with all of that, she couldn’t satisfy Trump because the laws and rules and ethical people got in her way. The next AG I think (hope) will have the same problems.” — Mimi Rocah, former district attorney for Westchester County, New York, and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York
“At her confirmation hearing, Pam Bondi told senators that, if confirmed, she would ‘work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice’ and that ‘America must have one tier of justice for all.’ Her actions belied these promises, starting with her announcement last March in the Department’s Great Hall that she was ‘so proud to work at the directive of Donald Trump.’ She sought to appease the president by prosecuting political enemies and giving favorable treatment to his allies; forcing out long-time career attorneys with irreplaceable experience; and turning her back on victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s decades of sexual abuse. Pam Bondi’s disservice to the department and the people of this country will be her legacy.” — Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, former acting assistant attorney general for national security, and former principal deputy assistant attorney general for national security.
“Pamela Jo’s tenure was a master class in how NOT to be an attorney general. Her weaponization of the DOJ at the behest of her client, Donald Trump, destroyed centuries of independence and integrity. Bondi must have to account for her violations of ethics, laws, and rules of professional conduct.” — Katie Phang, lawyer, political commentator, podcaster, and former host of The Katie Phang Show on MSNBC
“The end of Pam Bondi’s tenure as attorney general was as inevitable as it was embarrassing. But what I can’t stop asking is why she’d be willing to debase not only herself but also the rule of law and justice itself in service to someone as profoundly undeserving as Donald Trump. Bless her heart.” — Joyce Vance, law professor, legal analyst, former U.S. Attorney, and co-host of Sisters in Law and Cafe’s Insider
“Bondi is a symptom of a problem that emanates from the White House; shuffling deck chairs is meaningless if policies and practices remain the same.” — Andrew Weissmann, former assistant U.S. attorney (1991-2006), lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice, general counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and author of the forthcoming “Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America”
“An attorney general who prosecutes for revenge, sanctions wildly unconstitutional attacks on free speech, throws people in foreign cells without due process, and uses our hard-fought civil rights laws for government-mandated discrimination is a disgrace to the office. Our freedom and our basic rights depend on a government bound by the law, and Pam Bondi shredded that cornerstone of our constitutional democracy.” — Mike Zamore, National Director of Policy & Government Affairs at the ACLU
More on PamBondi:
‘America must have one tier of justice for all.’
Democrats must shout this from the treetops. Americans must know absolutely the crimes committed by these oligarchs and their henchmen. The notion that Trump, for one, will never spend a minute in jail after committing crimes -- fraud, rape, child molestation, embezzlement, bribery, insurrection, treason -- that would have seen any of the rest of us put away for life, should be at the front of everyone's mind and on the tip of their tongues.
Remember when the MAGA Republicans squawked incessantly about the weaponization of the DOJ under President Biden?
Those were lies.
MAGA Barbie Bondi weaponized the DOJ as never seen before in American history. She violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act protecting Trump and the rich elites in the Epstein Class, she had the MAGA inquisition into everyyone who was a Trump opponent, she refused to prosecute any crimes committed by Republicans or friends of Trump, and she gutted the DOJ of everyone but fervent Trump bootlickers.
The damage she and Trump have done to our justice system will take a generation to repair.