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President Donald Trump said Thursday that\u00a0Pam Bondi<\/a>\u00a0is out as his attorney general, ending the contentious tenure of a loyalist who upended the Justice Department\u2019s culture of independence from the White House, oversaw large-scale firings of career employees, and moved aggressively to investigate the Republican president\u2019s perceived enemies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The announcement follows months of scrutiny over the Justice Department\u2019s handling of\u00a0files related to Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex trafficking investigation<\/a>\u00a0that made Bondi the target of angry conservatives, even with her close relationship with Trump. She also struggled to satisfy Trump\u2019s demands to prosecute his political rivals, with multiple investigations rejected by judges or grand juries or yet to produce charges.<\/p>\n Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting attorney general, though three people familiar with the matter have said he has privately discussed Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as a permanent pick.<\/p>\n Bondi, a former Florida attorney general,\u00a0came into office<\/a>\u00a0last year pledging that she would not play politics with the Justice Department, but she quickly started investigations of Trump foes, sparking an outcry that the law enforcement agency was being wielded as a tool of revenge to advance the president\u2019s political and personal agenda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She ushered in a period of intense turmoil at the department that included the firings of career prosecutors deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump and the resignations of hundreds of other employees. Her departure continues a trend of Justice Department upheaval that has defined Trump\u2019s presidency as multiple attorneys general across his two terms have either been pushed out or resigned after proving unwilling or unable to meet his demands for the position.<\/p>\n Bondi rejected accusations that she politicized the Justice Department and said her mission was to restore the institution\u2019s credibility after overreach by President Joe Biden\u2019s Democratic administration with two federal criminal cases against Trump. Bondi\u2019s defenders have said she worked to refocus the department to better tackle illegal immigration and violent crime and brought much-needed change to an agency they believe unfairly targeted conservatives.<\/p>\n Bondi\u2019s public embrace of the president, however, marked a sharp departure from her predecessors, who generally took pains to maintain an arm\u2019s-length distance from the White House to protect the impartiality of investigations and prosecutions. Bondi postured herself as\u00a0Trump\u2019s chief supporter and protector<\/a>, praising and defending him in congressional hearings and placing a banner with his face on the exterior of Justice Department headquarters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nEmbracing, supporting and protecting the president<\/h2>\n