This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Thomas English
President Donald Trump has privately criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi as weak and an ineffective enforcer, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Monday.
Trump has expressed particular anger, according to the Journal, over the Justice Department’s failure to keep high-profile cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James alive after a judge dismissed the charges, citing an allegedly improper appointment. The president has floated potential remedies, including the appointment of special counsels, as he pushes for swifter legal action against his adversaries.
The tensions have been compounded by a protracted controversy surrounding Bondi’s handling of document releases related to Jeffrey Epstein — an episode that fractured her standing with parts of the president’s base and drew pointed criticism from inside the White House.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in December, referring to Bondi’s management of the Epstein document release.
The dispute dates to February 2025, when Bondi presented conservative influencers with binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” during a White House visit. The materials were met with swift disappointment: much of the contents had already surfaced through litigation and prior news coverage.
Bondi characterized the release as the beginning of a transparency initiative, with the Justice Department announcing “the first phase of declassified Epstein files.” But the spectacle gave way to backlash on the right when the documents failed to deliver the new names and revelations many had anticipated. ABC News reported that senior White House officials were frustrated Bondi had not alerted them beforehand, and that even the pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer denounced what she called the “unprofessional” rollout.
Wiles told Vanity Fair that Bondi had distributed “binders full of nothingness,” then compounded the damage by saying a “client list” sat on her desk — a claim Wiles dismissed. Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler, among the influencers who received a binder, later demanded an explanation for why “phase 1” contained “nothing,” as the controversy became a test of loyalty among pro-Trump media figures, according to The Washington Post.
Bondi’s allies have publicly defended her, and Trump himself issued a supportive statement to the Journal — even as he continues to vent his frustrations in private, the newspaper reported.
Trump told the Journal that “Pam is doing an excellent job” in a Friday statement.
Copyright 2026 Daily Caller News Foundation
