Donald Trump's decision to prioritize personal loyalty over credibility at the Department of Justice has come back to haunt him in the most embarrassing way possible, a Washington Post columnist wrote.
And he added the only way out of his latest crisis is to let Attorney General Pam Bondi go.
The problem stems from Trump's calculated shift away from the traditional model of independent attorneys general, Jason Willick wrote.
After being "burned by Mueller's Russia investigation” in his first term, Trump deliberately installed "law enforcement leaders who would be not just politically aligned but also personally loyal — even if that meant abdicating norms of honesty and professional responsibility,” the columnist went on.
That strategy has now exploded in Trump's face with the Jeffrey Epstein document fiasco. Unlike former Attorney General William Barr, who possessed "enough independent heft and credibility" to effectively shut down Russia collusion theories, Bondi "has no such credibility in the current Jeffrey Epstein imbroglio," Willick wrote.
The damage was self-inflicted. In February, Bondi turned the Justice Department into a reality TV show, teasing on national television that incriminating Epstein information was "sitting on my desk." She then handed out theatrical binders labeled "The Epstein Files: Phase 1" to right-wing media personalities at the White House — only to later admit there was "nothing new in the public interest to release," Willick recalled.
"This absolute control over the department [Trump] has wanted and has now achieved in Trump 2.0 cuts in various ways, not all helpful to a president in conditions of scandal," observed Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under Barack Obama. A Justice Department "functioning in this way, under his thumb, cannot provide him with the cover a president may need."
The irony is staggering, Willick wrote. While Barr successfully "helped wind down Russiagate," Bondi's status as "a White House lackey makes it hard for her to wind down Epstein conspiracies, especially because she stoked them in the first place."
Political observers suggest Trump faces a brutal choice: "If Trump wants to move on from Epstein, he might need to let go of his attorney general,” Willick wrote.
The alternative — keeping someone who "changed her tune on Epstein" — amounts to maintaining "the cover-up" itself.