If Attorney General Pam Bondi finds herself taking the fall for the furor over the Jeffrey Epstein firestorm, she has no one to blame but herself for setting expectations too high with an earlier Epstein stunt that flopped spectacularly.
According to Glenn Thrush of The New York Times, Donald Trump has a crisis on his hands after the Department of Justice issued a memo over a week ago that indicated that the accused pedophile's death while incarcerated was a suicide, and then sat on the file they have on him.
That, in turn, has set off the first time that Trump's MAGA base has seriously revolted against him to the point where he is being accused of being a part of the "deep state."
According to Thrush, Bondi's initial foray in catering to the MAGA crowd on Epstein only set her up for future failure, making her an easy scapegoat if the president needs to make his fans happy.
As the Times' analyst explained, "Ms. Bondi’s long-term victory, and perhaps her survival, is anything but assured," before pointing out, "The Epstein saga has exposed the hazards of Ms. Bondi’s focus on courting her mercurial political patron, an inside-game strategy rooted in the assumption, now an open question, that Mr. Trump will maintain the total backing of his political base."
As he noted, the "original sin" Bondi committed dates back to February when she invited far-right influencers to a meeting where she presented them hyped-up folders that were supposed to contain previously unreported info on Epstein — except they didn't.
"The stunt backfired catastrophically. The material turned out to be a dud. The episode has left her vulnerable to attacks from the right, reliant on the president’s protection," Thrush suggested.
He added that in recent days, Bondi has taken to making moves meant to "ingratiate" herself with MAGA influencers — including firing DOJ lawyers considered hostile to the Trump administration — but that doesn't seem to be working.
"Yet none of this has dampened hostility on the far right," he wrote. "Laura Loomer, an influential activist who speaks often to Mr. Trump, has led a high-volume campaign to oust Ms. Bondi. It has yet to sway the White House, but appears to be reverberating among Republicans in Congress who have suggested that she is not quite up to the job."
Writing that there are no indications Trump is ready to fire her, Thrush suggested the "president has sometimes been forced to jettison close allies when politically necessary," although some close allies and loyalists are spared the ignominy of that and are moved elsewhere within the administration.
He did note that there is a risk of ousting Bondi in that a new appointee would face a Senate confirmation vote, which would mean a grilling in hearings where the Epstein situation could be placed front and center.
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