by
Chip
Somodevilla/Getty
Images)
Last
night,
rumors
began
to
circulate
that
Donald
Trump
would
soon
fire
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi.
This
morning,
those
rumors
transitioned
to
reports
that
he’d
informed
her
that
she’d
be
shitcanned
soon.
Now,
Trump
is
reporting
on
his
social
media
network
that
Bondi
will
be
moving
to
a
new
job
in
the
private
sector
“in
the
near
future”
and
that
Todd
Blanche
would
be
taking
over
on
an
interim
basis.
Presumably,
Trump
made
this
decision
after
seeing
how
well
Bondi
was
doing
in
the
Above
the
Law
annual
bracket
challenge
as
the
lawyer
most
in
need
of
having
her
license
to
practice
law
permanently
stripped.
For
a
president
obsessed
with
projecting
an
image
of
strength,
the
ridicule
of
ATL’s
readership
was
surely
too
much
to
handle.
But
it
could
also
be
the
fact
that
his
administration
keeps
getting
handed
its
ass
in
court,
the
Justice
Department
cannot
miracle
up
anything
but
frivolous
claims
against
the
president’s
enemies,
and
a
bizarre
rumor
that
Bondi
tipped
off
Rep.
Eric
Swalwell
about
an
effort
to
use
the
FBI
to
rehash
his
long
ago
relationship
with
a
woman
suspected
of
ties
to
Chinese
intelligence.
Murder
rates
are
at
historic
lows,
though
they’ve
been
trending
down
for
decades
now,
making
this
boast
similar
to
claiming
this
year
marked
an
all-time
low
in
people
driving
1981
Honda
Accords.
“Transitioning
to
a
much
needed
and
important
new
job
in
the
private
sector”
is
brutal.
Trump
invented
a
fake
new
job
in
the
administration
when
Kristi
Noem
got
canned.
Bondi
isn’t
even
getting
that
courtesy.
And
if
Trump
hoped
that
this
move
could
distract
from
the
growing
frustration
in
Congress
over
the
Justice
Department’s
effort
to
keep
Trump’s
ties
to
Jeffrey
Epstein
covered
up:
This
does
raise
the
saliency
of
our
aforementioned
bracket
challenge.
Bondi
is
heading
to
the
private
sector
a
little
prematurely,
but
this
is
the
risk
to
the
profession’s
legitimacy.
After
supervising
the
Department
of
Justice
as
it
racked
up
tons
of
documented
instances
of
lying
to
tribunals
and
contemptuous
acts,
Bondi
is
poised
to
waltz
over
to
a
fat
paycheck
from
a
law
firm
who
wants
to
put
“former
Attorney
General”
on
their
letterhead.
And
we
can’t
depend
on
the
law
firms
to
restrain
themselves
because
they
will
just
see
the
dollar
signs
they
could
secure
by
marketing
themselves
as
having
a
former
Justice
Department
insider
around.
The
only
way
to
protect
the
profession
and
the
public
is
through
ethics
probes
and
licensing
consequences.
Who
replaces
Bondi
long-term?
Blanche
will
take
over
in
the
short
run,
but
despite
Trump’s
curiously
capitalized
description
of
Blanche
as
a
“very
talented
and
respected
Legal
Mind,”
he
isn’t
considered
the
favorite.
Early
indications
point
to
EPA
Chief
Lee
Zeldin.
That
would
certainly
track
Trump’s
preference
for
parking
garage
lawyers
and
insurance
attorneys
over
those
with
actual
experience.
There’s
one
candidate
no
one
is
talking
about
out
there
and
Trump
has
already
publicly
expressed
that
he
believed
the
man
was
capable
of
doing
this
job.
He’s
tanned,
rested,
and
ready!
by
Saul
Loeb-Pool/Getty
Images)
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
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