Nomination and confirmation On November21, 2024, president-elect Trump announced Bondi would be nominated for
United States attorney general, after the withdrawal of
Matt Gaetz for that position. There were two hearings at the
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, one on January 15, 2025, and the second one on January 16. Bondi was questioned by Democratic Senators over her past work as a lobbyist, the 2020 presidential election results, her relationship with Trump, and her thoughts about
TikTok. On January 29, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved her nomination in a party-line 12–10 vote. She was confirmed in a 54–46 Senate vote on February 4. The only Democratic senator who voted "aye" was Senator
John Fetterman. Bondi disclosed to the Senate Judiciary committee and the designated ethics official at the U.S. Department of Justice the compensation for her consulting services to Renatus Advisors LLC of Puerto Rico in shares and
stock warrants for the merger of
Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) and
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), which were in turn converted to shares and warrants of DJT on the day of the merger. The compensation for the consulting services totaled $2,969,563.
Tenure On February 5, 2025, Supreme Court justice
Clarence Thomas swore Bondi into office as the 87th attorney general. On Bondi's first day in office, she shut down the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, shut down the DOJ's
Task Force KleptoCapture, and cut back enforcement of the
Foreign Agents Registration Act. In March 2025, Bondi announced the establishment of the
Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10–7) to seek justice for victims of the
October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by
Hamas, which killed approximately 1,200 people, including 47 U.S. citizens, and saw about 250 others abducted, including eight Americans. The task force was created to focus on prosecuting the perpetrators of the attack, pursuing charges against Hamas leadership, and targeting individuals and entities providing support or financing to Hamas, related Iranian
proxies, and affiliates. Following the
United States government group chat leak in March 2025, Bondi indicated that the leak would not be investigated, saying that the information shared was not classified. In April 2025, Bondi convened a task force on
anti-Christian bias. In April 2025, Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the
Luigi Mangione case. In May, it was reported that Bondi sold at least $1 million worth of shares in
Trump Media on "
Liberation Day". In September 2025, in response to the
killing of Iryna Zarutska, Bondi said she would seek the death penalty for the perpetrator and that he would "never again see the light of day as a free man". In September 2025, in the aftermath of the
assassination of Charlie Kirk, Bondi said, "We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech." Her comments were criticized across the political spectrum, and the next day she clarified that she was referring to hate speech involving threats of violence. On October 7, 2025, Bondi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in what
NPR described as a "more than four-hour hearing... that often turned combative." Democrats accused Bondi of politicizing the Justice Department, while Republicans defended her actions and Committee Chairman
Chuck Grassley commended her for "resetting priorities." Bondi called the
Arctic Frost investigation a "historic betrayal of public trust" and said it represented "an unconstitutional, undemocratic abuse of power."
Immigration and drug enforcement In March 2025, Chief Judge
James Boasberg of the
federal district court in D.C. issued an order to temporarily block the
Trump administration from using the
Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of Venezuelan gang
Tren de Aragua, and also verbally ordered for the deportation flights "to be returned to the United States", to be "complied with immediately"; however, the Trump administration completed the deportations anyway, with Bondi and other Justice Department officials later arguing in a March 17 legal filing that "an oral directive is not enforceable as an
injunction". Bondi and other Justice Department officials then submitted a March 18 legal filing stating that regarding certain details about the deportation flights requested by Judge Boasberg, "there is no justification to order the provision of additional information, and that doing so would be inappropriate". During a media interview on March 19, Bondi said regarding Boasberg: "this judge has no right to ask those questions" regarding details about the
deportation flights, and has "no power" to order the Trump administration to stop the deportation flights, as Bondi declared that judges are "meddling in our government". In April 2025, Bondi said that
fentanyl seizures in the first 100 days of Trump's second term as president had saved 21 million lives. Two days later, she increased this estimate to 119 million. During a subsequent cabinet meeting, she said that during the same period, DOJ agencies had seized "3,400 kilos of fentanyl...which saved—are you ready for this, media?—258 million lives." These statistics were criticized as approximately 70,000 fentanyl deaths occur in the U.S. each year and the claim of lives saved represents 75% of the U.S. population. and Congressman
Byron Donalds, July 31, 2025 In August 2025, Bondi announced on
Twitter that the Department of Justice and the
State Department were increasing the reward to $50 million for
Nicolás Maduro, accusing the Venezuelan president of collaborating with foreign terrorist organizations, such as
Tren de Aragua, the
Sinaloa Cartel, and the
Cartel of the Suns, to bring deadly violence to the United States. Maduro was previously indicted by the
first Trump administration in 2020, along with other Venezuelan officials and former Colombian
FARC members, for what it described as "narco-terrorism": the trafficking of cocaine to the United States to wage a health war on its citizens. The reward was originally set at $15 million in March 2020 before being raised to $25 million by the
Biden administration in January 2025. In a
Fox News interview, Bondi stated that the DOJ had seized approximately $700 million in assets linked to Maduro. The assets allegedly included multiple luxury homes in
Florida, a mansion in the
Dominican Republic, private jets, vehicles, a horse farm, jewelry, and large sums of cash. Bondi described Maduro's government as an "organized crime operation" that continued to function despite the seizures.
Voter fraud The Department of Justice under Bondi focused on addressing alleged voter fraud. Beginning in 2025, at the direction of the Attorney General, forty U.S. states have been requested by the Department of Justice to share citizen voter data for the purposes of reviewing state compliance with election laws. Some states have pushed back against these requests. The federal government's lawsuit in California to compel the
Secretary of State to release the voter rolls was dismissed in January 2026. Judges have ruled in Georgia, Oregon, and Michigan to dismiss the federal government's lawsuits given a lack of evidence or support for the request. In January 2026 during
protests against ICE in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bondi sent a letter requesting current governor
Tim Walz share the state's voter rolls, including information on individuals who receive public assistance in the state, saying it would be beneficial for ICE to perform immigration enforcement in the state. In early February 2026, an FBI raid was conducted on a
Fulton County election office after a judge ruled the Attorney General's written demand for voter rolls in the state was unsubstantiated. The seizures occurred after a judge dismissed the federal government's request for voter rolls. Bondi continued to publicly state the importance of investigating election fraud.
Epstein files (far right) in a press conference on
crime in Washington, D.C. in August 2025 In late February 2025, a number of files related to
Jeffrey Epstein were released, heavily redacted and offering little new information. Bondi was criticized for her handling of the release, with commentators on the right and left labeling the move a political stunt rather than a genuine effort at transparency. Arwa Mahdawi, writing for
The Guardian, derided the release as "a lot of redacted nothing". In July 2025, the Department of Justice and the FBI wrote a memo saying there was no evidence that a supposed
list of Epstein's clients existed. Previously in February 2025, Fox News journalist
John Roberts had asked Bondi if the Justice Department would be publishing "the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients", to which Bondi responded: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that." Bondi also previously claimed there were "tens of thousands of videos" showing Epstein "with children or child porn," a claim later walked back by FBI Director
Kash Patel. Following the controversy, deputy director of the FBI
Dan Bongino considered resigning from his position due to his disagreement with Bondi over how the Justice Department handled the announcement of its decision not to release further records related to Epstein. President Trump defended Bondi, posting on
Truth Social that she was doing "a FANTASTIC JOB" in her role. According to CNN, "Privately, Trump has also doubled down on his support for Bondi."
The Wall Street Journal later reported that, during a briefing on the Justice Department's review of the files in May, Bondi informed Trump that his name was included among the documents. , where she is questioned on the Epstein files; February 11, 2026. Bondi was summoned for a
House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on February 11, 2026. The hearing was described by news outlets as a "clash" between Bondi and Democratic representatives, with the notable exception of Republican representative
Thomas Massie, who criticized Bondi and the DOJ for
redaction failures. During the hearing, when Bondi was asked how many of Epstein's accomplices she has indicted, Bondi stated, "The
Dow is over 50,000 right now. The
S&P at almost 7,000 and the
Nasdaq smashing records.
Americans' 401Ks and retirements are booming. That's what we should be talking about." This comment received significant criticism. Also in the hearing Bondi refused to respond to questions related to the department's ongoing investigation of any co-conspirators previously identified. According to an
internal memo, the Department of Justice closed any ongoing investigations into co-conspirators in July 2025. On February 14, 2026, Bondi stated that all the materials required to be released under the Epstein Transparency Act had been released to the public. Bondi stated the department declined to publish the remaining files, citing client attorney privileges. On April 8, 2026, Bondi declined to appear at a scheduled deposition before the U.S. House Oversight Committee which had been set for April 14, 2026, to discuss how the Justice Department had handled the Epstein files. On April 29, 2026, Bondi finally agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee, with her scheduled testimony set to take place on May 29, 2026.
Removal On April 1, 2026,
The New York Times reported that Trump was considering firing Bondi and replacing her with
Environmental Protection Agency administrator
Lee Zeldin. On April 2, Trump announced he had fired Bondi. == Personal life ==