US President Donald Trump has removed Attorney General Pam Bondi - a longtime ally and fierce defender of his administration - from her post as America's top law enforcement officer.
Trump praised her in a post on Truth Social and said she would be transitioning to a role in the private sector.
Bondi's time leading the justice department was often overshadowed by its handling of the release of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein and its investigation into the convicted sex offender.
She is the second Trump administration official in recent weeks to be cut from her post, after Kristi Noem was ousted as homeland security chief in March. Bondi will be replaced by her former deputy, Todd Blanche.
Bondi said she would be working tirelessly to transfer her work to Blanche, adding that the job had been the honour of a lifetime.
Bondi added that in her new private sector position - which she did not identify - she would continue fighting for President Trump and this administration.
The announcement comes less than two months after a combative congressional hearing in which Bondi was peppered with questions from lawmakers - at times descending into shouting matches in which she called one Democrat a washed up loser.
As recently as Thursday morning, Trump was defending Bondi, saying: She is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job. But hours later, Trump confirmed her departure on Truth Social, saying that her new private sector role would be announced at a date in the near future. The news was first broken by Fox.
Trump lauded Bondi's performance as attorney general in his post, saying she had done a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in crime across our country. But Trump reportedly had grown increasingly frustrated with Bondi, in particular over her handling of the Epstein files.
Upon taking office in February 2025, Bondi vowed transparency regarding the Epstein case and promised to release an alleged client list associated with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019. However, the department later stated that no such list existed.
In the end, millions of documents related to Epstein were released, but only after Congress passed a law requiring the Department of Justice to make unclassified records public.
Critics, including some lawmakers, have accused Bondi's Justice Department of failing to properly obscure some identifying information about survivors while protecting the identities of those who were not victims.
Bondi has previously called Epstein a monster and expressed regret for the abuse endured by survivors.
She has also faced bipartisan backlash, with accusations of inadequately responding to the concerns of Epstein's victims, resulting in a political liability for Trump.
In the wake of her departure, some legislators welcomed the change, expressing hopes for a more effective investigation into unresolved matters, including those related to Epstein.
