Pam Bondi, Under Fire From MAGA on Epstein, Takes Steps To Erase Any Traces of Jack Smith

Attorney General Bondi’s firing of more than 20 employees at the Department of Justice underscores — six months after President Trump took office — how much moving on from the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump is a top priority at the DOJ.All of those terminated had been seconded to Special Counsel Jack Smith, the federal prosecutor who, after his appointment as special counsel by Attorney General Garland, brought two criminal cases against Mr. Trump — one for January 6 and the other for the storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump told WABC Radio before the election that “Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country.”The latest round of firings, which encompassed both prosecutors and support staff, comes as criticism of Ms. Bondi, from Mr. Trump’s MAGA base, mounts over a memorandum the DOJ and the FBI — both of which report to her — issued last week asserting that the dead financier Jeffrey Epstein did not possess an “incriminating list” of clients and that there is “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals. The memo also reported that surveillance footage adduced from the Metropolitan Correctional Center — now closed for renovations — supports the conclusion, arrived at by the medical examiner, that Epstein killed himself behind bars. Ms. Bondi in February asserted on Fox that a list of Epstein’s associates — reputed to contain high-profile figures in politics and finance who socialized with him at his various residences and on his private jet — was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” The uproar from some precincts of Mr. Trump’s base was vociferous, with calls from figures such as Megyn Kelly and Laura Loomer that Ms. Bondi should be terminated. The criticism became so rancorous that the president himself took to Truth Social in the wake of the memo’s release to tell supporters to “Let Pam Bondi do her job,” and “not waste time and energy” on Epstein. A dispute reportedly erupted between Ms. Bondi and the deputy director of the FBI, Don Bongino, over the handling of the case, with Mr. Bongino threatening to resign unless Ms. Bondi exited, according to reports in Axios and other publications. Mr. Bongino did not report to work on Friday. Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base on Sunday, said that he’d spoken to Mr. Bongino and that he was “in good shape.”Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on August 1, 2023, at Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesCritics of how Ms. Bondi has handled the Epstein issue have included not only loyalists of Mr. Trump but increasingly also Democrats who sense a self-inflicted wound. Congressman Ro Khanna asks on X: “Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected?” Mr. Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, adds, “On Tuesday, I’m introducing an amendment to force a vote demanding the FULL Epstein files be released to the public. The Speaker must call a vote & put every Congress member on record.” Meanwhile, Mr. Trump wonders, “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.” The purging of any associates of Mr. Smith from the DOJ predates the burgeoning contretemps over the Epstein files, but this latest round of firing could be an effort by Ms. Bondi to divert attention from how she has handled Epstein’s legacy. Mr. Trump vowed to fire the prosecutor even before he took office, but Mr. Smith chose to resign days before the 47th president swore the oath. To the end Mr. Smith contended that he could have convicted Mr. Trump. Ms. Bondi adopted an antagonistic stance toward Mr. Smith from the beginning of her tenure. In February she convened a “Weaponization Working Group” to probe “Special Counsel Jack Smith and his staff, who spent more than $50 million targeting President Trump.” That group is now led by an attorney, Ed Martin, who was formerly Mr. Trump’s nominee to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. The DOJ has now fired some 35 employees who worked with Mr. Smith, and CBS News reports that at least 15 more could soon find themselves looking for new jobs. Mr. Smith’s top deputy, Jay Bratt, followed his boss in resigning before Mr. Trump took office. That first wave of firings was undertaken by the acting attorney general, James McHenry. He explained that all of the attorneys he let go played a “significant role in prosecuting President Trump.”At the beginning of his administration, Mr. Trump’s team solicited a list of names of FBI agents who were involved in Mr. Smith’s investigations and, in particular, the August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. FBI agents are represented by a quasi-union and have more job protections than staff prosecutors. Nevertheless, many senior FBI agents have been demoted or reassigned.Mr. Smith resigned from government service in January. In February, Mr. Trump stripped Mr. Smith’s private lawyer of his security clearance, and also punished the lawyer’s firm, Covington & Burlington, which had been donating its services to Mr. Smith pro bono. Those moves have been challenged in court. Mr. Smith has not been heard from publicly since he tendered his resignation to Mr. Garland.The largest step to unwind the legacy of Messrs. Garland and Smith was undertaken by Mr. Trump himself when he Sharpied a pardon for nearly all of the more than 1,500 defendants who were convicted or pleaded guilty for their actions during the protest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A vocal supporter of that step, Steven Bannon, over the weekend called the Epstein file “the key that picks the lock on so many things — not just individuals, but also institutions.” Mr. Trump, though, on Saturday reflected: “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!”

Pam Bondi, Under Fire From MAGA on Epstein, Takes Steps To Erase Any Traces of Jack Smith

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