Attorney General Pam Bondi is in open warfare with the FBI’s top brass, and the feud is spilling into public view. According to senior officials and internal accounts described by the Wall Street Journal, Bondi has accused bureau leadership of trying to torpedo her reputation by leaking details about behind the scenes clashes over the Jeffrey Epstein saga, an issue that continues to dog President Donald Trump and inflame his base.
For months, Bondi has been hammered by critics for refusing to release new material tied to the late sex offender’s case. That decision became a political boomerang, angering MAGA influencers who were primed for supposed bombshells early in Trump’s second term, and triggering finger-pointing across the administration.
The Journal reported that internal memos and interviews describe disagreements, disorganization, and unforced errors that only made the mess worse. According to people familiar with the disputes, Bondi told allies she believed FBI leaders were trying to destroy her by feeding reporters a drip of internal drama that cast her as the roadblock rather than the reformer.
The spark that set off the firestorm came in early July, when Justice Department and FBI leadership abruptly announced that no further evidence from the Epstein matter would be released. According to the Journal, that call landed like a grenade inside the administration. FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino had previously entertained Epstein-related conspiracies before entering government, while Bondi had spent months teasing that more disclosures were coming. When the no release statement dropped, a senior White House official told the Journal it was like a bomb went off.
The fallout quickly turned personal. FBI insiders told the Journal they bristled when the Justice Department labeled the announcement an FBI memo, reading it as an attempt to shift blame. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was tasked with damage control, according to the same reporting, shuttling between warring factions to cool tempers. At one point, Bongino threatened to resign during a heated confrontation with Bondi at the White House, then left Washington for several days to cool off, the Journal added. Separate coverage from Raw Story also highlighted the escalating turf war and quoted officials describing the internal mood as chaotic.
Publicly, Bondi tried to reset the narrative. “Our only priority is to continue working together with the FBI to make America safer by ensuring murderers and violent criminals face the most severe justice,” she said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, adding that she and Patel have worked tirelessly with federal agencies and state partners. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a similar statement, saying Bondi, Patel, his deputy, and others have been working together to advance the administration’s goals, mainly putting bad people behind bars.
The veteran crisis hands were brutal in their assessment. Ty Cobb, who led the White House response in 2017 to the special counsel probe into Trump’s Russia ties, told the Journal the government’s handling of the Epstein fallout was the worst-managed public relations event in history, arguing that multiple mouthpieces were freelancing and covering themselves. White House spokesperson Steven Cheung disputed that characterization, telling the Journal that Cobb suffered from what he called a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
