“Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi”

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I'm Alicia Menendez, in for Nicole Wallace. Breaking news today on one of Donald Trump's most fiercely loyal allies in his administration. Trump has ousted his Attorney General Pam Bondi after growing increasingly disappointed with her job performance. Trump says Bondi will move into a job in the private sector and that Deputy AG Todd Blanche will now serve as the acting AG. This news comes on day 34 of an unpopular war of choice, an unhinged Oval Office address, a public clamoring for the release of the Epstein files. 8 million Americans taking to the streets to express their discontent with this president. But the president's focus? Ballrooms, loyalty tests and retribution. Well Bondi did everything she could during her time as the nation's top law enforcement officer to do Donald Trump's bidding. What tipped the scale according to MSNOW's reporting is that Trump grew quote, frustrated with Bondi's inability to successfully prosecute several individuals whom he considers political enemies and has argued should face criminal charges. It is not that Bondi did not try to deliver Trump's revenge. When Trump directed her to prosecute his perceived enemies in a public truth social post back in September, she took her marching orders. But here's what happened to the most high profile cases. There was the failed attempt to prosecute former FBI director James Comey when the case was thrown out by a judge. There were three failed attempts to indict or prosecute New York Attorney General Atisha James. And a grand jury rejected an attempt to charge six sitting Democratic lawmakers. And then, of course, there was her handling of the Epstein files. As the New York Times reports quote, Trump's support for Bondi has steadily eroded since last summer. When her early stumbles in managing the release of the Epstein files created a political liability for Mr. Trump among a segment of his supporters. Despite her ouster, the House Oversight Committee is vowing to still hold her accountable, ranking member Robert Garcia saying this in a statement today, quote, Attorney General Pam Bondi has been leading a White House cover-up of the Epstein files. She has weaponized the Department of Justice to protect Donald Trump and put survivors in harm's way by exposing their identities. She will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our committee under oath. She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell. As for who might replace Bondi on a more permanent basis, three sources familiar with the matter tell MSNOW that EPA Administrator, former Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, is on a short list. But it's not clear that any other person in that post can and will have more success with Bondi's failures. The second Hypro file firing of a Trump Cabinet official in less than a month is where we begin this hour. Our White House reporter Laura Barron Lopez joins us from the North Lawn. Senior investigative reporter Carol Lening is here. Plus, former assistant special agent in charge at the FBI, National Security and Intelligence Analyst Michael Feinberg is with us as well. Carol, talk us through how this all unfolded. You know, what's been happening the last few days has been pretty interesting. We've been chasing this tip that Donald Trump had tired to the degree with Pam Bondi that he was going to remove her. And of course, last night we were reported and again this morning, my colleagues on the White House team, Laura and Jake, were able to confirm that not only was he considering removing her, but he had informed Pam Bondi that he was removing her. I really like the way you began this segment because it's important to remember all the things Pam Bondi has done that set her completely apart from any prior attorney general. And that is her willingness to do exactly what Donald Trump sort of orders up in terms of prosecuting people or bringing charges against people that he views as his enemies. And none of those efforts thus far have been that successful. Grand juries have decided that they don't see the evidence for crimes on behalf of some of the people Donald Trump has targeted and Pam Bondi has willingly gone along with. And judges have actually intervened in cases where the evidence is also sorely, in their opinion, lacking. But really the Epstein case is also a huge contributor to this and we have to remember that Donald Trump lost supporters and friends and fans among a dark conspiracy theory community that believed the Justice Department was hiding important information about Epstein and his special clients. Well, it turns out what the Department of Justice was mostly concealing, according to MSNOW, were documents that seemed to implicate or suggest that there were witnesses who claimed they had been sexually harmed by not just Epstein but by Donald Trump. Those are the only documents we know of at this point that were withheld by this Justice Department for a period of time and that did not help Donald Trump very much. Laura, if all of this has been simmering for months now, why now? Talk to me about the timing. Yeah, Alicia, I mean, I think that part of it was that the president was starting to really consider other people and he, this had been building for so much time all the way going back to last summer. He'd been hearing as Carol laid out for months from people that are close to him, from allies who come to the White House and talk to him that they were not happy with Bondi's handling of the Epstein files and just her public persona. I think that a lot of it also had to do with some of her hearings, her public testimony, recently to Congress where the president wasn't necessarily happy with that as well. And, you know, of course, the president being a master of changing media narratives, there is some consideration that, you know, while the public is focused on Iran and rising gas prices, that things like this, shaking up his cabinet even further, could draw attention away from that. But ultimately, you know, there are people that the president is considering and he had started to talk to over the last few days now, but Republicans and other allies that he was close to about those potential replacements. And what one source familiar with the president's thinking told me was that when the president starts to do that, that means he's about to move on this. And really, within a matter of days, he did. And he was starting to talk to people about Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, someone who he has been very happy with at the EPA. And with Zeldin carrying out his deregulation of many policies that would fight greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. He also is considering people like Janine Pirro, someone who is also incredibly close to the president, a very loyal supporter who also denied the 2020 election results like Pam Bondi. She's the current U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. And Pirro sources told me, as well as Jake Trailer, is pitching herself for the job and is someone who is being considered for it as well. So there are a number of other people that we could go through that the sources have told me, Carol and others, that the president is considering, whether it's Alina Habba, who's the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey and was disqualified from that role by an appeals court, or also Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri, who is as well potentially on this shortlist here. Alicia. It is interesting, Michael Feinberg, to imagine what those pitches must be, given that the president's discontent with his current attorney general was that she was not sufficiently loyal, that she was not able to bend an institution to her will, regardless of who they put in that role, will they be able to carry out this president's agenda? Not in the immediate future and hopefully not ever, because the bulwark that has been blocking people like Pam Bondi from being successful and going after the president's foes is our judicial system. It is judges at the magistrate, district court, and appellate court level. It is grand juries. I would lightly disagree with you that she did not bend DOJ to her will. In my opinion, she didn't just bend it, she broke it. She has seen the largest outflow of talent from the Justice Department in United States history. Some of it has come from firings, some of it has come from resignations, and some of it has come from people who retired much earlier than they ever expected to because they couldn't take working in that environment. And she turned the Justice Department into the exact opposite of what it is supposed to be. She has let the innocent go free, whether it is individuals credibly charged with things like other Bush administration officials who are alleged to have taken bribes, or ICE officers who have killed Americans in city streets. And she has allowed the innocent to be punished, whether it's Letitia James or Jim Comey. We're in the upside down with what the Justice Department is supposed to be doing. Michael Feinberg, you said Bush administration officials, but I think you meant Trump administration officials there. No, and I want to clarify, Caroline, I agree. It is not my assessment that she has not succeeded in bending this institution to her will. It is the president's reading of the situation that it has not been sufficient. What is the message then, Carol, to other loyalists? And as you are doing your own reporting, do you have a sense of the pitch that folks who want this job moving forward are now making to the president? So perfectly described. What's happening here is Donald Trump is sending a signal loud and clear over the horizon and into the ears of the people who are gunning for this job. And that is, it's not sufficient to be loyal to me. It's not sufficient to let the White House dictate who gets prosecuted. It's not sufficient to badger the heck out of members of Congress who are exercising oversight and deflect and avoid and fill a buster so you don't answer their questions. Even though those are all things Donald Trump values, it's not sufficient. What will be sufficient is bringing sort of these scalps to, you know, him at the Oval Office, the scalps of people that he wants to see pay those folks who are on his retribution list. Laura, same question for you. Do you have a sense as these folks are pitching themselves to the president the types of promises that they are making? We don't have just yet the details on specifically the way they're pitching themselves, but I think if you look at the list that we have, which sources have told us are on this shortlist for the president, all of them at some point questioned or denied the 2020 election, which we know has been a litmus test for this administration. They also are people who have been incredibly loyal. So the question is, which you posed, Alicia, is how successful can they honestly be in ways that Pam Bondi wasn't? Because again, she brought cases. She attempted to prosecute the president's perceived enemies, but those failed. Janine Pirro herself also attempted to bring a case against those six Democratic lawmakers who issued that video telling soldiers that they didn't have to follow unlawful orders, and then she had to subsequently essentially drop that case. So she also has not been always the most successful. I think the question here is who is going to be Senate confirmable? They don't necessarily need Democratic votes to confirm one of these potential options. I think that's something that's been said a lot in the past. I mean, I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. I think that's been said a lot in the past. It wasn't because they weren't loyal enough or because they didn't attempt to do the president's bidding. You know, Kristi Noem did carry out the harsh deportation policies that the president and those closest to him in the White House wanted. It was essentially because they couldn't go far enough. They couldn't execute it fast enough in the president's mind, and they also brought along some bad headlines along the way. And I think that it was the contribution of those bad headlines, be it about Epstein, but also not being able to fully carry out the president's bidding, who, and we hear the president just yesterday and repeatedly over the last few weeks, repeatedly referring to himself as potentially a king and saying that he wishes at times he were a king. And I think that that is what ultimately factors in here, is who is going to be able to carry out his bidding and to attempt to plow through the courts. And I think that whoever he ultimately nominates, and Carol can probably speak to this as well too, will be met in a similar fashion to the way Pam Bondi was met. Okay, we're going to come back to that, but I want to talk about those bad headlines that Laura referenced, Michael Feinberg. With the Epstein case, let's remember what it was that Pam Bondi said at the start of her tenure. One of the things that you've alluded to, and this is something Donald Trump has talked about, that DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients? Will that really happen? It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that. I mean, it goes without saying this is going to be one of the most indelible moments of her tenure, Michael Feinberg. And it's easy to look at retrospectively and say, from that moment, she effectively set herself up for failure. I mean, look, I think she set herself up for failure from day one, because she took a job that if American democracy holds, is going to be impossible for her to do. The fact that she was willing to, she really helped bring the Epstein controversy to the fore during the campaign in the early years of the presidency. And then the administration realized it had written checks that they couldn't cash, because one of the names that repeatedly appears is that of the president, Donald Trump. So, I mean, it's hard to muster sympathy for Pam Bondi for many reasons, but primarily because she dug her career zone grave here. She didn't have to amplify the Epstein files. She didn't have to say she was going to be able to prosecute and indict all the president's enemies. She could have played her cards a little closer to the vest. She could have been a little bit more strategic. In other words, she could have exhibited the qualities that lawyers are hired for in the first place. She chose instead to sacrifice her integrity for the sake of power. And now she has neither. Carol, do you have a sense of what the reaction has been inside of DOJ? You know, there's a large group of people who are still, as I describe in a couple of settings, holding on by their fingernails because they care deeply about the shared mission and values of the Department of Justice that they have long known and that Mike also worked under. And they are a little bit elated that Pam Bondi is gone, but full of apprehension about what this means for the next Attorney General. Because if Pam Bondi's version of bending a knee, bending the Department of Justice to the president's will, if her version isn't sufficient, how much worse will it get? You know, it is going to be, I love the way you phrase these questions, Alicia, because it is going to be nigh impossible to surpass the factual challenges that are necessary to indict and prosecute people without strong evidence, without evidence that's beyond a reasonable doubt. And it's hard to imagine how the next AG is going to jump that hurdle in a way that's different than Pam Bondi. But inside the Department, there are people quite nervous about what the next Attorney General is going to have to be willing to do to meet Donald Trump's standard. And Michael, given the almost symbiotic relationship between the FBI and the DOJ, what are you hearing from FBI officials? My phone is blowing up with gifts of children dancing in celebration and slightly more muted expressions of joy. Indeed. Very quickly, before I let you go, Laura, your sense as the president and his inner circle put together this short list, how quickly we can expect this to move? Well, right now, Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General, is in place, is acting for the interim. So it's hard to tell how quickly the president is going to move, but he has a number of people here who he has been close with for years and people who he is very fond of. He has created soft landing for Bondi, similar to what he kind of did for Kristi Noem, because he also was fond of Bondi. But he is very close to Jeanine Pirro. He's very close to Alina Habba, his former personal attorney. These are people who are regularly either at the White House or Palm Beach. And so we know that they are definitely pitching him right now, as well as his aides close to him for this potential position. Alina Habba, truly the definition of if at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again. Laura Barron Lopez, Carol Lennick, thank you both so much for your reporting and your analysis. Michael Feinberg, you're going to be back with me a little later. When we come back, more on Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein files. Congresswoman Zo Lofgren joins us on that and why no one was held accountable for those crimes. Plus Todd Blanche running DOJ for now could look a lot like Pam Bondi running the DOJ. We're going to look at what changes are in store for the Justice Department with a new loyalist in charge. And later in the show we're going to get to the war in Iran, Trump's message to the nation failing to impress just about anyone. All those stories and more when Deadline White House continues after this. Your energy prices are guaranteed to always stay below the price cap. Satisfy those savings cravings. Check out our full range of tailored energy solutions at eonnext.com forward slash save. Eonnext, we make energy savings work. Next pledge is a 12 month fixed time trucker tariff with variable rates lower than Ofcham's price cap for standard variable tariffs. Direct debit required. T's and C's apply. Stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the MS Now Daily newsletter. Analysis by experts you trust. Video highlights from your favorite shows. Plus updates on our latest podcasts and election coverage. Sign up at MS.Now. With lawmakers today demanding that Pam Bondi still appear for her scheduled deposition on April 14th, despite her firing. It's worth a reminder of how things went the last time Bondi appeared before Congress under oath. Watch. The Dow is over 50,000. I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader as I hear Raskin. The Dow is over 50,000 right now. The S&P at almost 7,000 and the NASDAQ smashing records. Americans 401ks and retirement savings are booming. That's what we should be talking about. Now you'll recall that was her answer to a line of questioning on her handling of the Epstein files. I want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Zolaughner of California. She is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Congresswoman, you were in that hearing we just played. Do you think that was the beginning of the end for Pam Bondi? It's hard to know with this president what's motivating him. She completely embarrassed herself. But it could be that she's failed to convict people without any cause. People who are his enemies. Certainly the Epstein files have not been handled well. People across the country now believe that there may be a reason why President Trump is trying to hide the files before people are giving him the benefit of the doubt. So this has been a bad situation for her and for the president. But I don't assume that her replacement will be something we'll cheer. I understand Todd Blanche is going to be filling in. He's the guy who went down and coddled Gillian Maxwell, who's serving time for child abuse, moved her to a country club prison after the interview. So good riddance to Pam Bondi. But good luck to us for who might come next. Let's talk about some of the other names that are circulating. You referenced Todd Blanche. We've also heard from our colleagues Lee Zeldin, Alina Habba, Jeanine Pirro. The question of course, who on that list is actually confirmable? Is there someone here Republicans can get behind? None. Say more. Not those names. I mean Zeldin is violating the law constantly in his current position. He's been called out on it by myself and others in the science committee. Pirro has been, you can indict a ham sandwich, but not Trump's political enemies. She's been a failure and an embarrassment. Habba, I got thrown out of court. I mean, these people are jokes. I mean, they cannot be confirmed. I would imagine. Okay, let me throw one more name into the mix because there's reporting today that some senators are trying to pitch Donald Trump on replacing Bondi with Senator Mike Lee. It was posited to me that his Republican colleagues just want him out of the Senate so badly that they saw an opening and thought they could potentially position him. Do you think Mike Lee would make a good A.G.? No. I mean, I've worked with Mike actually on some FISA reforms. So, you know, it's not somebody I can't talk to, but I don't think he would be a good A.G. I would imagine that some of his fellow Republican senators might want to get rid of him, whether he would take that deal, turn in a Senate seat where he probably could serve for the foreseeable future for a job that, you know, he could get fired in a few months by Trump. He's so volatile, so would he even take it? I wouldn't if I were him. I'm stuck on something that my colleague Michael Feinberg, who served as a special agent at the FBI, said in our previous block, which was, here you have a president who is frustrated that Pam Bondi has not succeeded sufficiently in his view in bending the DOJ to his whims and to his will. Michael Feinberg's argument was that she didn't just bend it. She broke the institution that once was the Department of Justice. In your mind, what does accountability look like for Pam Bondi, even as she returns to being a private citizen? Well, she has to come to Congress. She's been subpoenaed. And the fact that she's been fired doesn't excuse her from complying with that subpoena. She has information that the Congress needs to get about the Epstein files, whether she will escape bar association accountability. It's hard to say. A number of Trump defenders who are lawyers lost their bar licenses. I don't know if there's anything going on in that regard relative to her, but certainly some of her conduct as AG might lead to questions about her. About her ethics and her ability to adequately serve as an officer of the court. I'm just so struck that if you read the reporting, it seems as though the president's biggest critique or frustration was her inability to prosecute his perceived enemies. But from your vantage point, how much damage did she actually do? Even if she didn't succeed, there wasn't a home run. Simply the time, the money, the pain, the damage to our democratic institution that has been inflicted. How are you going to look back on her tenure? That was the point, I think, to try and harm people who the president doesn't like and who he considers his enemies, whether or not they hadn't committed crimes, any of them. Which is why the effort to indict them fails miserably. Obviously, if you are a defendant in a matter, it costs money, it's aggravating. I think in some cases, it may end up helping people. They're now going after my colleague, Eric Swalwell, who is running for governor of California. Since they've singled him out as the biggest enemy of Trump, that probably helps Eric in California. People are wondering who among the Democrats they should vote for. I've heard a lot of people say, well, if Trump is against him that much, he must be our guy. It's a truly remarkable day, and a truly remarkable moment in American history. And Congressman Zolofgren, I am so grateful to you for making time today to be with us. Thank you. After the break, reaction from some of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse to Pam Bondi's firing. Why the calls for accountability are still out there. Next Pledge. Your energy prices are guaranteed to always stay below the price cap. Satisfy those savings cravings. Check out our full range of tailored energy solutions at eonnext.com forward slash save. Eonnext, we make energy savings work. Next Pledge is a 12 month fixed time trucker tariff with variable rates lower than Ofcham's price cap for standard variable tariffs. Direct debit required. T's and C's apply. Stay up to date on the biggest issues of the day with the MS Now Daily newsletter. Each morning you'll get analysis by experts you trust. Video highlights from your favorite shows. Voters weighed in. Donald Trump's dismissal of their concerns has been weighing on his political standing. Updates on our latest podcasts and election coverage. Plus written perspectives from the news makers themselves. All sent directly to your inbox each morning. Get the best of MS Now all in one place. Sign up for MS Now Daily at MS.now. It's exhausting to hear her not answer questions. I mean basically she's just evading every question. At one point she talked about what is Jekyll and Hyde. Like anything that she can do to eat up the time. And anything she can do to not even humanize survivors. And I think that that's the biggest takeaway for a lot of us. She won't even turn around and acknowledge us as people. And she won't even look at us after we have gone through so much. And the DOJ has failed time and time again. It is just such a grave miscarriage of justice. One of the most shameful parts of Pam Bondi's tenure. Her callousness towards the women who survived Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. A survivor, Danielle Bensky, noted Bondi who repeatedly claimed the Epstein client list was on her desk. Refused to meet with her even look at the survivors. Her ousting however is unlikely to provide the justice that these women have fought so tirelessly for. As Todd Blanche who cut a sweetheart deal with Ghislaine Maxwell becomes acting AG. Joining me now senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin and Michael Feinberg is back with us. I have a sort of technical question for you Lisa which is when an AG steps out. Whether in this case an ousting or whether of their own volition. How does something like an investigation or the release of the Epstein files get handed over? Well if you listen to the Department of Justice whether it's AG Bondi or the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. They will tell you Alicia that this is behind them. That they have produced all of the files that they were going to produce in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. So from their perspective there is nothing more to hand off. There is of course the open question about whether former Attorney General Pam Bondi or anyone else from the Department of Justice. Will go to talk to the House Oversight Committee which has an outstanding subpoena for her testimony earlier today. Congresswoman Mace saying that subpoena is to Nancy, I'm sorry is to Pam Bondi in her personal capacity. It's not to the Attorney General of the United States. It names her specifically and according to Nancy Mace she still wants to hear from Pam Bondi. Looking back retrospectively how did we get to a place where so many survivors' names and other personally identifying information was splashed across the public domain. I mean even last week we saw one survivor file a class action against Google. Why Google? Because they say that they've made repeated attempts to ask Google to de-index their name to take it out of search. Why is it in search in the first place? Because it was released through the release of documents in the Epstein file. So you can see that the harms for survivors continue to reverberate well beyond the initial release of these documents. And I think for reasons like that Pam Bondi is continuing to be a subject of focus for survivors and people who consider themselves survivors allies like Congresswoman Mace. Well and that question you posited about the subpoenas one we're going to be talking about in our next block with a member of the House Oversight Committee. There's the substance and then there is the tone and the way in which she has spoken to these survivors or spoken about these survivors. Let's take a listen to some of that and then we'll talk about it on the other side. If you are willing please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. Will you turn to them now and apologize for what your Department of Justice has put them through with the un-absolutely unacceptable release of the Epstein files and their information? Congresswoman you set before Merritt Garland set in this chair twice. Attorney General Bondi, I'm going to finish my answer. No I'm going to reclaim my time because I asked you a specific question that I would like you to answer which is will you turn to the survivors? This is not about anybody that came before you, it is about you taking responsibility for your Department of Justice and the harm that it has done to the survivors who are standing right behind you and are waiting for you to turn to them and apologize for what your Department of Justice has done. I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. We've talked a lot about whoever comes in next, sort of how the attitude around retribution, the action around retribution changes. I am curious in the case of the Epstein files of the survivors if there is even the possibility for you to turn here. I think there is and I think the survivors have been incredibly gracious, at least the ones that I have talked to today or received statements from. I don't hear from survivors, never will I engage with the Department of Justice or never can I make that right? What I hear from them is hope, against hope by the way, because this Department of Justice has let them down across presidential administrations and across different functions, whether it was their particular investigation or their compliance with the Epstein files transparency act. Let me be clear, DOJ has let survivors down time and time again, literally for decades at this point and yet, when I hear from survivors today, I heard from one in Ischka, DeGiorgio, who is still holding out hope that Todd Blanche, as the interim attorney general, will in her words do the right thing. This is not about a single person, it's about a government and judicial system that has repeatedly failed Epstein survivors, regardless of who holds power. Survivors deserve accountability, transparency, protection from retaliation, and assurance that those who enabled Epstein Maxwell and others will be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted. So these are folks that are still holding out hope that this Department of Justice, despite the fact that in a July 2025 memo, said there's nothing more to look at, there is no investigation or criminal prosecution that could be predicated on the files that we've seen, these survivors are still holding out hope, Alicia, that a Department of Justice, this Department of Justice perhaps, will ultimately do the right thing because they have nothing else other than the hope that justice will eventually be theirs. And I'm so glad that you played that clip because there are people who say Pam Bondi's paradigmatic moment in that hearing was when she referred to the Dow Jones and how well it was doing. To me, that's the searing moment. That is the moment of Pam Bondi that I will forever remember and I think will follow her for years to come. Michael Feinberg, when it comes to the Epstein files and DOJ, do you think there's an opportunity here for a reset? Not under this administration, no. Making the decision to release an investigative file after a case has been quote, closed is a very tough decision to make and not one that administrations usually choose to pursue. But once you've done that, you can't then try and hide the ball from the American people and the survivors by releasing some documents, then releasing others with it with information that is not supposed to be in there, then redacting information that the public has a right to see. They really engaged in a lot of obfuscation of what those files contained. They slow walk their release and they never quilted the fire that they themselves started throughout the campaign. So it is difficult for me to see how anybody other than a loyal MAGA foot soldier, whether in Congress, in the public, in the media, or in any other institution, will ever take what this administration has to say about the files with any degree of seriousness ever again. Big day. We will watch and see how this all unfolds. Michael Feinberg, Lisa Rubin, thank you both so much for being with us after the break. Pam Bondi really knows about the Epstein files is the focus of the congressional subpoena. We're going to talk with another lawmaker on whether that subpoena still holds. Stay with us. I will continue to answer. I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics. This is your committee and she is embarrassing. This wasn't a trick question. You don't get to reclaim your time. I don't answer the question. I don't answer the question. He does reclaim his time. I don't answer the question. I'm talking. Quiet. Regular order, please. She posted nothing on her ex account on her Twitter account during the Biden year. All of a sudden, question asks. This is not a game, secretary. I'm attorney general. My apologies. I couldn't tell. Pam Bondi in front of the judiciary committee earlier this year. She had been set to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee in two weeks. I want to bring in a member of the House Oversight Committee, Democratic Congressman Suha Subramanian of Virginia. Congressman, the question of the hour seems to be whether or not your subpoena compelling. What is now the former head of DOJ to testify before your committee still holds? Our subpoena absolutely still holds. In fact, I have even more questions for her now. But the reality is, if she's going to continue to break the law, we're going to continue to have her come in. And this was a bipartisan subpoena. So there's no real immunity she has in any way. Just because she's no longer going to be attorney general does not mean she is immune in any sort of way from testifying before us. Understanding that it is in fact a bipartisan subpoena, do you think there is any possibility that your Republican colleagues may the leadership of the committee make an effort to revisit the issuing of the subpoena? Well, you never know what Republicans in the House know, right? When President Trump calls them, they tend to follow what he says. But I will say in this particular instance, there are a lot of Republicans who have real questions for the former Attorney General Pam Bondi and the person who brought the subpoena Nancy Mace seems to be very dug in on this. And so I think certainly we'll continue to think there will be bipartisan support for it. Congressman, you said you have more questions now than you did before. What are those questions? I want to know whether the conversations like when she was told to be reassigned or essentially fired. I want to know if the Epstein files came up again. Our subpoena was about the Epstein cover up and how she not released two and a half million files. I'd like to know her involvement in that. What the president asked her to do? What the president asked her to cover up? We have a lot of questions just on the Epstein issue alone, but let me be clear. She has also done a lot to help the president go after political enemies. And it seems like she didn't do enough to do the president's bidding. And so now the acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, his qualification that he was the former president, he was the president's former personal attorney, right? And he's the one who sent Galeigh Maxwell to a cushy prison after interviewing her for six hours. And so I don't say that Todd Blanche is much of an upgrade from Pam Bondi. Congressman, there is an emerging list, shortlist of candidates to replace Pam Bondi reporting, including Todd Blanche, Lee Zeldin, Lena Haba, Jeanine Pirro. In your estimation, would any of them be more compliant with House Oversight Committee than we have seen from this current DOJ? I wouldn't imagine so. I think the president's only criteria is who will be the most compliant to him. And so certainly someone like Todd Blanche, who I would absolutely oppose, I think that's someone we really need to be watching out for, because that would be making the Justice Department even more dangerous than it is right now. I think that's the president's plan going into the November midterms, is that he wants to weaponize the Department of Justice as much as possible and try to rig these midterms as much as possible using that power. And so we have to be very vigilant in the Senate. Needs to shoot down anyone who they think will simply follow the president's order instead of serving the American people. Congressman Suhas Subramanian, thank you so much for your time today, sir. After a quick break, a development on the future of Trump's big plans for a White House ballroom in a new East Wing, we're going to tell you all about it next. It is one tiny step forward to big steps back when it comes to Donald Trump's big, beautiful ballroom with stairs that lead to nowhere and columns that lock the views. First, that step forward. Today, the National Capital Planning Commission, full of Trump appointees, voted to approve his plans. But that stamp of approval may mean very little in the end, because the ballroom faces a major legal and political hurdle. The federal judge issued a scathing order this week, temporarily blocking its construction and ruling that Trump needs congressional approval for the project to go forward. And that is far from a sure thing. The Washington Post reports today that not only are Democrats largely opposed to building the ballroom, Republicans are wary of touching such an unpopular issue. The poll released last week showed that 56% of Americans disapproved of renovations to the White House. We're going to keep tracking that story. When we come back, will Donald Trump's next pick for Attorney General do what Pam Bondi couldn't? Deliver on his campaign of political revenge. The next hour of Deadline White House continues after this. Check out our full range of tailored energy solutions at eonnext.com forward slash save. Eonnext, we make energy savings work. Next pledge is a 12-month fixed-term track tariff with variable rates lower than off-champ's price cap for standard variable tariffs. Direct debit required. T's and C's apply.