Stephen Colbert said good riddance to Attorney General Pam Bondi, hitting her with a string of jokes mocking the biggest controversy of her tenure.
In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Donald Trump announced that he had booted Bondi from the top DOJ job. The president also announced that he had chosen Bondi’s deputy, Todd Blanche—who led Trump’s defense in his New York “hush money” trial in 2024—as her temporary replacement.
Trump allegedly fired Bondi because she wasn’t willing to go after his political enemies. In September, Trump accidentally shared a message on Truth Social, seemingly addressed to Bondi, complaining that “nothing is being done” about former FBI director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both figures had investigated Trump prior to his 2024 election win.
Bondi also received heavy criticism from the MAGA world for her handling of the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Despite having once promised to expose the people named in the Epstein files, Bondi later delayed their release and repeatedly downplayed their significance.
When the Justice Department was forced by Congress to release the Epstein files to the public, they released them in chunks and with heavy redactions.
Colbert made fun of Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files in his Thursday monologue.
“Speaking of human waste, just a few hours ago we learned that President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi,” Colbert told viewers.
After the applause died down, Colbert said, “Now, listen, in tribute to Pam Bondi, I offer this heartfelt farewell...”
He pulled out a letter to Bondi in which nearly all the words were blacked out, in the same way that entire pages of the Epstein files were blacked out by the Justice Department under her tenure.
Although Colbert had no sympathy for Bondi amidst her ouster, he did argue that her mishandling of the Epstein files was likely the result of pressure from Trump himself.
“Saying that the villain of the Epstein files is Pam Bondi is like saying the lead in Die Hard is the dad from Family Matters," Colbert joked.
Bondi’s replacement has himself been criticized for his handling of the Epstein files.
In July, Blanche spent two days meeting with Epstein’s top associate Ghislaine Maxwell, in which she reportedly said only positive things about Trump and his relationship with Epstein. Shortly afterward, Maxwell was moved from her prison in Florida to a nicer, more relaxed prison in Texas.
Throughout his time in the Justice Department, Blanche has stuck to Bondi and Trump’s approach of downplaying the importance of high-profile names mentioned in the Epstein files.
“We will always investigate any evidence of misconduct,” Blanche said in a Fox News interview in February. “But as you know, it’s not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”
