Justice Department staffers wasted no time in taking down portraits of Pam Bondi after news broke Thursday that President Donald Trump had fired her.
One portrait of the outgoing attorney general was dumped in the trash, a photo obtained by MS NOW shows.
The unceremonious removal of Bondi’s portrait from the walls of the Justice Department is symptomatic of the dislike that career DOJ officials and agents had for her, current and former officials told the outlet.
In her 14 months on the job, the department experienced an exodus of staffers who did not want to work for Bondi. The Trump appointee also pushed out many other nonpartisan officials who then claimed she and other top appointees were weaponizing the department at the president’s behest, violating court orders, jeopardizing national security, and weakening corruption-fighting initiatives.
Some of those staffers, according to MS NOW, also took issue with how Bondi reacted to seeing portraits of former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Attorney General Merrick Garland on the walls in the Justice Department early in Trump’s second term. Bondi took them down herself, she told Fox News. But she also demoted Devin DeBacker, who was then the acting chief of the DOJ’s National Security Division.
One former national security division official who opposed DeBacker’s demotion told MS NOW: “They better take her picture down.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Bondi, 60, will be at the department through the end of the month before starting a new role in the private sector. She has provided no details about her new job.
Trump fired Bondi during their ride in the presidential limousine to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“I think it’s time,” he reportedly told Bondi, who pleaded to stay on until the summer, but was rejected.
Bondi later became “emotional” when speaking to friends and colleagues about her exit, according to The New York Times.
Bondi’s departure came less than one month after Trump fired “ICE Barbie” Kristi Noem, whose glamour shots in various Department of Homeland Security outfits were promptly removed from Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington.
