Bondi fumes FBI leaders 'trying to destroy her' by leaking info about Epstein chaos

Attorney General Pam Bondi has been feuding internally with the top two officials at the FBI over their shared handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter that's continuing to hound President Donald Trump.

Bondi has faced months of criticism for refusing to release new information about the late sex offender's case, which inflamed the president's MAGA base and remains a lingering political issue for the president, and the Wall Street Journal reported on infighting over the issue at the top levels of government.

"Disagreements, finger-pointing, disorganization and unforced errors by Trump advisers made the problem worse," the Journal reported. "Bondi complained to other officials that FBI leadership was 'trying to destroy her' by leaking information about internal discord, according to people familiar with the disputes. Other administration officials who tried to repair the ties concluded the issue had spiraled largely because the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation had mishandled it."

DOJ and FBI leadership set off the firestorm in early July by abruptly announcing no further evidence in the case would be released, despite FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino pushing Epstein conspiracy theories before entering government and Bondi tantalizing MAGA influencers with promises of bombshell revelations early in Trump's second term.

“It was like a bomb went off after that statement went out,” recalled one senior White House official.

FBI insiders saw DOJ's decision to label the statement an "FBI memo" as an attempt to shift blame, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was tasked with leading damage control and restore peace among feuding officials, but Bongino threatened to quit in one particularly loud clash with Bondi at the White House and fled Washington, D.C., for several days to cool off.

“Our only priority is to continue working together with the FBI to make America safer by ensuring murderers and violent criminals face the most severe justice," Bondi told the Journal, adding that she and Patel have “worked tirelessly with my agencies and state partners.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a similar statement, saying that Bondi, Patel, his deputy and others have been “working together to advance the Trump administration’s goals, mainly putting bad people behind bars.”

Ty Cobb, who led the White House response in 2017 to the special counsel probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, called the administration's response to the Epstein scandal "the worst-managed PR event in history.”

“You’ve got multiple mouthpieces, and they’re all covering their own a-- now,” Cobb said.

White House spokesperson Steven Cheung disputed the former Trump lawyer's assessment, telling the Journal that Cobb had a “debilitating diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”