A New York Times story claims that Attorney General Pam Bondi is functioning as a figurehead and that the Department of Justice is being run out of the West Wing.
Alleged to be creating the department’s agenda from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in tandem with President Donald Trump, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is said to be influencing the department from there.
Bondi sees her role “as that of a surrogate, a faithful executor and high-volume messenger, compelled to cede ground to empowered players in the West Wing,” according to The Times’ conversations with 20 present and former officials regarding Bondi’s first months in office.
Long renowned for his love of hiring individuals as though it were a casting call, the president especially pays close attention to the attorney general’s TV performance, a particular asset.
Although she was known as a “hard-charging prosecutor” as Florida’s attorney general, since assuming the position of the country’s top legal officer, she has taken a “performative” stance and shown a readiness to carry out White House orders, The Times notes.
This is clearly different from the posture adopted by past Justice Department directors who concentrated on the department’s independence from the presidency.
“The decisions are being made at the White House, then they’re being pushed down to the Department of Justice, which is very, very atypical,” Elizabeth Oyer, the former senior pardon attorney for the agency, told the newspaper.
Oyer was sacked for not allowing actor Mel Gibson to have gun ownership privileges restored.
“She seems to be just playing a part,” she observed of Bondi. In a sense, she is like an actor.
The Times notes, referencing present and former Trump associates, “it was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department.”
Details are then allegedly shared with Bondi and Trump’s two former defense attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who the president nominated to posts at Justice following inauguration, and who assist daily department operations.
Conservative former Justice Department official Edward Whelan told the paper: “I can’t recall an attorney general who seemed willing to be subordinate to White House staff members.”
Officials who spoke with The Times said that although Bondi has been consulted on important decisions including how to respond to a federal judge’s order to return immigrants deported to El Salvador with no due process — she does not seem to have had a significant influence in developing general strategies, stressing on matching her department with the Trump game plan and framing attacks on opponent.
Early on in Bondi’s term, Miller allegedly expressed strong disapproval of the choice of Florida county sheriff Chad Chronister to head the Drug Enforcement Agency at Bondi’s request.
Later on, Chronister withdrew his name from review following criticism from conservative activists claiming he had held a church service after arresting a pastor violating Covid-19 lockdown rules. Trump was “miffed,” according to The Times, and asked aides why she would have suggested him.
But Bondi’s constant appearance on Fox News and her flattery of the president in cabinet meetings reveal she understands how to keep Trump’s favor.
When Bondi is on Fox, The Times writes that she “exhibits attributes that earned her the job, alternating between cheerful chat and political attacks. There have been at least three dozen appearances to date.”
Both the left and the right have mocked her based on those appearances. Some of Trump’s supporters object to her for not following the president’s declared list of opponents.
Her greatly publicized disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein’s misdeeds and death to right-wing influencers turned into a disaster when no fresh material was supplied, and a backlash resulted that damaged her image in those fields.
Particularly outspoken in her criticism and mocking of Bondi, far-right activist Laura Loomer
Loomer remarked on a recent podcast episode, “Pam Blondie is a liar; we cannot trust Pam Blondie anymore.” She spends more time on Fox News than she does working.
In defense of Bondi’s performance, Bove said that under her direction the department “arrested terrorists, cartel kingpins and gang leaders, helped secure the border, got drugs off the street at a historic rate and assisted in the removal of thousands of criminal aliens.”
Working closely with the West Wing was crucial, according to her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, for her to confront a “liberal” workforce in the department that was “wready to blindly implement” the agenda of the previous administration under President Joe Biden.
Bondi approved Trump’s acceptance of a premium Boeing 747-8 aircraft supplied by the Qatari royal family to be modified to serve as Air Force One in one of her most most lately reported moves.
Amid a flurry of legal and ethical and legal problems over the gift, it was observed that Bondi herself, a lobbyist, had six-figure consulting fees from Qatar before to assuming her present post in the government.
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