US President Donald Trump has defended Pam Bondi, America’s highest-ranking prosecutor, amid growing calls from the president’s supporters for her to resign.
In a lengthy social media post, Trump hit out at complaints from critics who have accused Bondi of withholding more information about the death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his so-called client list.
The mounting attacks from critics come after a memo released by Bondi’s Justice Department last week failed to deliver what many had hoped would be major revelations in the Epstein case.
“Let Pam Bondi do her job,” Trump wrote in all caps, encouraging his supporters to “not waste time and energy” on Epstein.
US Attorney General Bondi’s critics include far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who was frequently seen with Trump on the campaign trail, and billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s biggest campaign donor.
The memo sent out on Monday, jointly released with the FBI, said there was “no incriminating client list” nor evidence to suggest Epstein had blackmailed high-profile figures suspected of being in what conservatives call the “deep state”.
The government’s findings were made, according to the memo, after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data.
The findings follow multiple pledges from Bondi to reveal potentially damaging evidence related to Epstein, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs”.
Many of Bondi’s past claims related to the Epstein files, and the possibility of hidden evidence, had been echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
After the memo was released, frustrations from Bongino led to a contentious meeting between him and Bondi in the White House on Wednesday, according to the BBC’s media partner CBS News.
The feud highlighted what some have described as a growing division between the FBI and the Justice Department over the Epstein case.
On Friday, Loomer claimed on X that she was told Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning”.
Bongino did not show up to work on Friday, according to CBS News sources.
Epstein’s sudden death aged 66 in a jail cell inside New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center has been a strong source of conspiracy theories for years.
The FBI and Justice Department’s memo confirmed that Epstein died by suicide, which many people in Trump’s orbit had questioned.
Bondi suggested to Fox News in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
However, she clarified those remarks in the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters that she was commenting on the entire Epstein “file” and other files.
The president’s frustrations with the ongoing public interest in Epstein were on display last week in the White House, when he responded to a reporter’s question with: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”
Conservatives have long held the conspiracy theory that high-ranking Democrats would be implicated in a full release of the Epstein files. Now liberals are asking whether a reluctance to release the files is to shield Trump.
