U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is causing “concerns” within the establishment justice system and legacy media, with former officials claiming that she is using “quid pro quo” and “ruthlessness” to do the bidding of President Donald Trump.
Bondi, who was confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support on February 4, has repeatedly said the Department of Justice (DOJ) would not “play politics,” the Associated Press reported from her hearings in January.
“Of course not,” the former Florida attorney general replied to Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) when asked if she would “start with a name to prosecute and then look for a crime.”
“I hope no attorney general going forward would ever do that,” Bondi added.
While she stated that the justice system under former President Joe Biden “targeted Donald Trump,” she insisted that “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
In a Sunday piece from the Associated Press, the publication claimed that “a succession of actions has raised concerns the department is doing exactly that.”
The DOJ ordered Manhattan prosecutors to drop the bribery and wire fraud case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) last week, saying that the “timing of the charges,” initially filed in September 2024, “have threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity that risks impacting potential witnesses and the jury pool.”
“It cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior Administration’s Immigration policies before the charges were filed, and the former U.S. Attorneys public actions created appearances of impropriety that implicate the concerns raised in the Attorney General’s February 5, 2025 memorandum regarding Restoring The Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice, as well as in Executive Order 14147, entitled Ending The Weaponization of the Federal Government,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said in a February 10 memo to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
According to Bondi’s office, the case has “improperly interfered” with Adams’ abilities to campaign for reelection and “to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.”
“We are particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support critical, ongoing federal efforts ‘to protect the American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful mass migration and resettlement,’ as described in Executive Order 14165,” the DOJ memo stated.
While the DOJ provided the aforementioned reasons for telling New York prosecutors to dismiss the case against the mayor, the department added that they had reached that conclusion “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer the U.S. Attorney’s Office at this time.”
Soon after receiving that memo, Trump-appointed attorney Danielle Sassoon, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, resigned from her office.
In a letter foreshadowing her decision to step down from her role, Sassoon alleged that Adams’ attorneys “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo” indicating that the mayor would be in a position to assist with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement “only if the indictment were dismissed.”
In a reply back to Sassoon, Bove accepted her resignation after her “choice to continue pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case.”
“You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General,” the acting deputy attorney general wrote, before adding that the assistant U.S. attorneys principally responsible for the case against Adams would be placed on “off-duty, administrative leave pending investigations by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Professional Responsibility, both of which will also evaluate your conduct.”
In total, seven federal prosecutors resigned in objection to the DOJ’s order to drop the charges.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN’s Margaret Brennan that Trump’s supposed “attack on the Department of Justice” could be an “impeachable” offense.
David Laufman, a former federal prosecutor and senior national security official at the DOJ who is outspoken about being a Never Trumper, told the Associated Press that Bondi is using her role to “subjugate” the department’s workforce to please the Trump administration.
“We have seen now a punishing ruthlessness that acting department leadership and the attorney general are bringing to essentially subjugate the workforce to the wishes and demands of the administration, even when it’s obvious,” he told the Associated Press, adding that some of the new attorney general’s decisions have all the signs “of corrupting the criminal justice system.”
In December, then-president-elect Trump told reporters he would consider pardoning Adams, who has denied the allegations that he exchanged favors for Turkey in return for campaign contributions that were then used to obtain matching campaign funds for the city.
According to Trump, Adams was being prosecuted unfairly because he “went against what was happening” with Biden’s border policy, which ravaged NYC with illegal migrant crime.
The Associated Press went on to compare the situation to the wave of resignations that occurred within the DOJ in 1973 during President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, though the outlet noted the fact that there are “significant” differences between the two cases.
“Even though there may not be more resignations, a clear message has been sent about the objectives and the expectations of the department,” said former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served under former President George W. Bush’s administration.
“The purpose of the department is to ensure that our laws are carried out, that those who engage in criminal wrongdoing are prosecuted and punished,” he told the outlet. And to some it may appear “that if you have some kind of relationship with the White House, there may not be consequences for doing something that ordinary Americans engaged in similar conduct would be punished.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that he was “not involved” in Adams’ charges being dropped, and knew “nothing” of it, the AP reported.
Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, said prosecutors who refused to issue the dismissal order, which has since been pushed through, have “no place at DOJ.”
“The decision to dismiss the indictment of Eric Adams is yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts,” Mizelle said in a statement obtained by the AP.
In her first news conference since entering her new position, Bondi announced a lawsuit against the state of New York over a law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.
“New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today. We’re here today because we have filed charges against this,” she said. “Violent criminals, gang members, drug traffickers, human smugglers will no longer terrorize the American people.”
Bondi previously sued the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois over illegal migrant sanctuary policies.
“As you know, we see Illinois and New York didn’t listen. So now you’re next,” she added.
