Her leaving the job might cause a big change in how the Justice Department makes decisions and could lead to more efforts to use the U.S. legal system against Trump’s targets.
Bondi is the second high-ranking Trump official to be removed in recent weeks.
Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5 after complaints about how she ran the department and her approach to immigration.
Bondi, who used to be a Republican state attorney general in Florida, said she focused on getting the Justice Department back on track to fight violent crimes and rebuilding trust with Trump’s supporters after federal prosecutors had charged Trump with crimes during the time he wasn’t in office.
Bondi also got criticized for removing many experienced prosecutors who were working on investigations that Trump didn’t like.
Critics said she was turning away from the DOJ’s usual focus on fair and balanced justice.
Bondi defended the release of the Epstein files, saying the Trump administration was more open about the issue than past presidents.
She also noted that DOJ lawyers had to move quickly to go through a lot of information.
During a tough hearing in January before a group in the House of Representatives, Bondi responded to criticism by attacking the lawmakers.
She refused to apologize or even look at people who were victims of Epstein or their family members who were at the hearing.
Early last year, Bondi fueled a lot of talk about the Epstein files by saying a list of names was on her desk for review.
But after the first release included mostly things that were already public, the DOJ and FBI said in July that the case was over and no more information would be shared.
This led to a lot of backlash and eventually a law passed in November by both parties that required the Justice Department to release nearly all of its files.
The release of about 3 million pages of documents still didn’t stop the controversy, as lawmakers criticized parts that were redacted and the fact that some Epstein victims’ names were made public.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee decided to ask Bondi to appear and she was supposed to testify on April 14.
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