Trump officials are throwing each other 'under the bus' — again

On Friday, former Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the US House Oversight and Reform Committee to face a grilling over the Department of Justice’s mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. From the get-go, it was clear that she hoped to shift any blame onto her replacement, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

"As the head of a large Department with broad responsibilities, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself,” Bondi asserted in her opening statement. “I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche."

This had political commentators raising their eyebrows. As Republican writer Bill Kristol put it, “LOL. Bondi thrown Blanche under the bus.”

Criticism of the Epstein investigation and file release has dogged President Donald Trump over the course of his second administration. While exposing the truth about the Epstein “cabal” was among Trump’s key campaign promises, once he was in office, his administration was slow to take action on the matter, prompting voices across the political spectrum to push for the file release. Eventually, it took an act of Congress to force action, but once the government finally did release a vast trove of data, many criticized questionable redactions and other aspects of the disclosure.

Then in April, Bondi was fired, with many suggesting that her removal was sparked by Trump’s displeasure at her handling of the Epstein case, or by the fact that she allowed for the file release at all. It’s also likely that she got on the president’s bad side due to her unwillingness or inability to secure indictments against his political enemies.

She was replaced by Deputy AG Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney. Since his ascension, Blanche has proven more than willing to do his boss’s dirty work, indicting “longtime Trump foe” James Comey, announcing charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center and helping the president erect a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of an IRS settlement, which has prompted outrage from across the political spectrum for essentially creating a “slush fund” for convicted January 6 rioters. Blanche has drawn no shortage of criticism for his actions, and now it appears Bondi is trying to throw him under the bus.

While backstabbing isn’t uncommon in politics, it is especially characteristic of the Trump administration. Earlier this year, amid public anger over violent ICE deportation tactics, ex-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and senior White House policy advisor Stephen Miller couldn’t find proverbial buses for one another fast enough. And Trump himself is no stranger to giving his officials the shove, doing so repeatedly during both terms. Recently, he’s pushed both Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance beneath the wheels over Iran war blowback, and the firing of Bondi was itself such an effort, in an attempt to shift blame for the widely decried Epstein investigation.

Trump’s implication in and poor response to the Epstein case have caused severe fractures in the MAGA movement, prompting fallouts between the president and key former allies like ex-Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alex Jones. Criticism of the investigation has also ensnared Trump officials like FBI Director Kash Patel, who has been accused of lying under oath while testifying about the matter, and former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino clashed with Bondi over the case before resigning amid accusations that he was aiding a cover-up.