LDF Issues Statement on Firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Today, the Trump administration announced that Pam Bondi has been fired as U.S. Attorney General. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as acting attorney general while a new appointment is eventually considered by the U.S. Senate.

In response, Legal Defense Fund President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement:

"Since her confirmation, Pam Bondi has facilitated the desecration of the Justice Department - the primary agency tasked with protecting the people of this country from discrimination - at the whims of an administration that has demonstrated a complete and utter disregard for the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, and federal law.

"Bondi was responsible for firing countless dedicated civil servants; gutting crucial programs that protect Americans from discrimination; deliberately obscuring the findings of critical investigations from the public; maliciously furthering false and inflammatory narratives surrounding Black people, immigrants, and other people of color; pushing the bounds of ethics by declaring the Justice Department was the President's private lawyers; and illegally persecuting public officials for political gain. She was never fit to lead the Justice Department, and that was made clear during her time as Attorney General.

"However, her firing today does not mean that corruption and ineptitude have been fully eradicated from our halls of justice. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Senate must not replace Bondi with yet another sycophant intent on mocking the democratic ideals upon which our nation was founded. They must remember their duty lies with the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, and people of the United States, not the man occupying the White House."

View LDF's report in opposition to the nomination of Pam Bondi as Attorney General here.

###

Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.