Pam Bondi, the attorney general of the United States, circled the Roosevelt Room in late February, handing out bulky white binders labeled “Epstein Files: Phase 1” to a conclave of Trump-allied influencers summoned to the White House for their first visit.
That Ms. Bondi, the nation’s top law enforcement official, would prioritize a case of importance primarily to conspiracy theorists was telling. Anxious to appease the restive MAGA base, she hyped the disclosure as “breaking news” on Fox the night before, part of an effort to fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise to reveal new details on the financier Jeffrey Epstein’s misdeeds and death.
It was a dud. There were “no bombshells,” she said, according to one of those invited.
Later, activists on the right lashed out at Ms. Bondi. She responded by blaming others, and then dispatched F.B.I. agents and prosecutors from the Justice Department’s national security division to scour the archives, officials familiar with the situation said. They found little. No one knows when Phase 2 is coming. But it is not likely to amount to much, those people said.
Ms. Bondi earned a reputation as a hard-charging prosecutor known for combating opioids and street crime during two terms as Florida attorney general. Since taking office as U.S. attorney general in early February, she has adopted a conspicuously performative approach to survive inside a Trump cabinet that rewards self-promotion, ritualized public flattery and, above all, a willingness to execute White House directives with little fuss.
Over the last few days, Ms. Bondi signed off on Mr. Trump’s acceptance of a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane upgraded to serve as Air Force One donated by the Qatari royal family, which raised a host of ethical and legal questions. As a lobbyist, Ms. Bondi herself received six-figure consulting fees from Qatar.
The path taken by Ms. Bondi, 59, is common enough in the Trump court — few cabinet members have autonomy to chart their own course. But her approach represents a noticeable departure from that of her predecessors at the Justice Department who saw themselves, to varying degrees, as guardians of institutional independence, attentive but not beholden to the presidency.
Ms. Bondi is still finding her footing, as evidenced by her setback with the Epstein files. But she 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, and in her own building, who exercise significant authority that rivals her own, according to interviews with 20 current and former officials.
“The decisions are being made at the White House, and then they’re being pushed down to the Department of Justice, which is very, very atypical,” said Elizabeth Oyer, the department’s former top pardon lawyer who was fired after refusing to grant gun ownership rights to the actor Mel Gibson.
“It feels like she is just performing a part,” Ms. Oyer said of Ms. Bondi. “She is like an actor, in a way.”
If there is a script, it has come in the form of prescriptive executive orders and memos from the White House. The agenda has largely been set by Mr. Trump, his adviser Stephen Miller and other officials — hashing out details with two former criminal defense lawyers for Mr. Trump who run day-to-day operations in the department, along with the attorney general.
Ms. Bondi has said she is returning the department to its core law-and-order mission. Under Ms. Bondi, the department “has arrested terrorists, cartel kingpins and gang leaders, helped secure the border, gotten drugs off the street at a historic rate and assisted in the removal of thousands of criminal aliens,” said Emil Bove III, a top department official who has overseen dozens of forced transfers and firings.
Chad Mizelle, the attorney general’s chief of staff, said close coordination with the West Wing was essential to fight a “liberal” department work force. President Biden, he argued, did not need to exert such control because most career staff members were already “willing to blindly implement” his agenda.
They are presiding over a period of profound disruption. Mr. Trump’s team appears to be redefining criminality — erasing convictions of rioters and allies, shifting civil rights investigations from fighting race-based discrimination to pursuing a culture-war agenda, de-emphasizing prosecutions of white-collar crime and public corruption, pushing for mass deportations — often defying and publicly trashing judges along the way.
Ms. Bondi has repeatedly rejected calls to investigate the use of Signal to discuss sensitive military information among top administration officials, even though the department and the F.B.I. routinely opened investigations into such breaches in the past.
She has flattered Mr. Trump lavishly, if not always factually. “You were overwhelmingly elected by the biggest majority — the U.S., Americans want you to be president,” she said at a cabinet meeting in April.
That approach has earned Ms. Bondi scorn on the left. But Mr. Trump likes her, takes her calls and seems generally satisfied with her performance, aides said.
Mr. Trump’s base, not so much. Some on the right believe that the Epstein debacle was the symptom of a larger problem — her unwillingness to go harder at Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies.
“She’s not getting much credit every time she shows up on social media because it’s an exhibit for her critics who want to see her doing more,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which sued Ms. Bondi to obtain all the Epstein documents reviewed by her team.
No critic has been harsher than the far-right influencer Laura Loomer, who has targeted Ms. Bondi over the Epstein files and ridiculed her frequent appearances on Fox News.
“Pam Blondie is a liar, and we can’t trust Pam Blondie anymore,” Ms. Loomer said on a recent podcast. “She’s on Fox News more than she does her job,” she added.
Limited Power, by Design
In late November, Mr. Trump’s first pick for attorney general, former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, was forced to withdraw amid a sex scandal.
The nearly two decades Ms. Bondi spent as a prosecutor in the Tampa area made her an obvious successor, as did her friendship with a fellow Florida Republican, Susie Wiles, the incoming chief of staff.
Over the years, Ms. Bondi had displayed conspicuous loyalty to Mr. Trump, refusing to investigate complaints against Trump University as Florida’s attorney general — shortly after accepting a $25,000 campaign contribution from Mr. Trump. She would go on to serve as a member of the legal team that fought his first impeachment, and would later realize a $3 million profit from a merger involving his social media company.
After being picked in early December, Ms. Bondi made a midsize request: Would Mr. Trump nominate her ally, Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Fla., to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration?
He said yes — and regretted it. Sheriff Chronister was forced to withdraw over the arrest of a pastor who had violated pandemic lockdown regulations by holding a church service. Mr. Miller was critical of Ms. Bondi’s choice, and let her know it — and a miffed Mr. Trump asked those around him why she would have recommended Sheriff Chronister, people with knowledge of the situation said.
Ms. Bondi also urged people around the president to limit clemency for Jan. 6 rioters to those not accused of acting violently. She was blindsided when Mr. Trump extended pardons to even violent offenders on Day 1.
It was clear from the start that Mr. Miller, who is not a lawyer, would exercise control inside the department, current and former Trump aides said.
“I can’t recall an attorney general who seemed willing to be subordinate to White House staffers,” said Edward Whelan, a conservative former Justice Department official.
Even before Ms. Bondi was selected, Mr. Trump had enlisted two of his personal lawyers, Todd Blanche and Mr. Bove, as the top two subordinates to the attorney general. Mr. Blanche, who led a stall-and-brawl legal defense in the two federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump, had a strong relationship with him and had been initially considered for the top job.
Ms. Bondi was deeply displeased by the arrangement, and told friends it undermined control over her own organization. It made no difference.
She has tried to adapt and has become close to Mr. Bove, a stoic enforcer who she refers to as “Sweet Emil,” according to several officials.
She was, however, given more say over subsequent personnel actions and signed off over the person selected to be her top aide, Mr. Mizelle, a former official in the Homeland Security Department.
Mr. Mizelle, a lawyer from Florida who also served in the first-term Justice Department, began meeting at Ms. Bondi’s house, presenting her with drafts of 14 memos to be issued on her first day in office — scotching diversity and inclusion programs, establishing a task force to examine “weaponization” of the department and slashing investigations of foreign meddling in U.S. politics and business. She toughened the language in a memo reviving the federal death penalty and rejected two other proposed memos.
One of Ms. Bondi’s favorites: a memo commanding staff to zealously follow orders.
Pursuing the President’s Priorities
Ms. Bondi has been consulted on key 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 appear to have played a major role in creating overall strategies, focusing on aligning her department with the game plan and framing attacks on opponents, current and former officials said.
By contrast, her two longest-tenured predecessors, William P. Barr and Merrick B. Garland, played more central roles. Mr. Barr, while supportive of Mr. Trump’s agenda, notably refused to comply with his demand to support lies about the election.
Ms. Bondi has pushed back on personnel and budget issues, and was infuriated when the White House proposed slashing funding for domestic violence and victims’ assistance programs, according to an official with knowledge of her actions.
But she is in ideological lock step with Mr. Trump, aides said, and considers many in his orbit to be personal friends. One of them is Elon Musk, and she has rushed to assist and defend him, ordering prosecutors to seek maximum penalties against Tesla vandals and recording a passionate direct-to-camera video on the subject.
She has welcomed those working for Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting operation, granting the initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, access to department databases. She has also instructed staff to pursue investigative leads sent by DOGE. Only a few have panned out.
Ms. Bondi has been equally open to initiatives pushed by Mr. Miller and his team. May Mailman, an aide to Mr. Miller, has pressed to prosecute doctors who perform gender surgeries using a law intended to punish genital mutilation, according to people familiar with the situation. Ms. Bondi signed a memo instructing prosecutors to consider such cases.
She has been less welcoming to the department’s career work force.
A few days after taking office, she was escorted through the locked doors of the department’s national security division where she spied photos of Mr. Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Garland peering from the drab walls of the elite unit.
“Don’t you people realize who won the election?” asked Ms. Bondi, according to people briefed on the interaction. Down the pictures came. Off she went.
Hours later, Ms. Bondi ordered Mr. Bove to demote Devin DeBacker, a respected prosecutor serving as the unit’s interim director, for insubordination, according to several officials with knowledge of the situation.
In April, she told Mr. Bove to dismiss Erez Reuveni, a career immigration lawyer who had acknowledged that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an immigrant living in Maryland, had been wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
The move further stressed an already understaffed and demoralized immigration unit sagging under the weight of litigation and retirements.
Joseph A. Darrow, a 10-year veteran of the unit, said he could not “with clean conscience” defend the department’s actions under Ms. Bondi, claiming they ran counter to the law, Constitution and “basic principles of fairness and humanity,” he wrote in a resignation email obtained by The New York Times.
Making the Rounds of Fox News
Ms. Bondi has always been attentive to her public image. As attorney general, she has organized public appearances down to the most minute detail — with a preference for tightly controlled news conferences featuring visual props (fake fentanyl pills), dramatic backdrops (a Coast Guard ship used in drug busts), uniformed federal agents and conservative influencers.
But it is Ms. Bondi’s remarkable run of near-exclusive appearances on Fox News shows, at least three dozen to date, that has provided her most conspicuous public platform. In them, she exhibits attributes that earned her the job, alternating between cheerful chat and political attacks — often signaled by an abrupt spike in vocal volume.
She has been particularly fierce in defending immigration actions, describing antagonistic judges as “deranged” and assailing Mr. Abrego Garcia’s character by saying that his wife, who is campaigning for his return, is safer without him.
While unsparing in accusing the Biden administration of weaponizing her department for political gain, Ms. Bondi has, curiously, not spoken much publicly about Mr. Garland.
In private she has been more critical, as much about style as about substance, telling one associate that Mr. Garland, a camera-shy former judge, failed to maximize the office’s immense power to control narrative and image.
Devlin Barrett and Adam Goldman contributed reporting from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Kitty Bennett contributed research.