Pam Bondi was arguably Trump’s most thankless appointee of many before her. Like most of the passing hordes of fired Trump appointees for senior roles, she sailed into the meat grinder and soon got fired. Epstein, voter data, you name it, Bondi had the entire spectrum of Trump’s legal horror stories to manage. She couldn’t. Nobody could.
Many of the huge legal issues helpfully detailed by The Guardian in its summary of Bondi’s tenure are truly insoluble. Most of them can be considered ongoing procedures for future legal action. Many of them require Congressional action in some form.
Bondi was also directly responsible for handling an exponentially more dangerous legal situation. An absolute torrent of lawsuits tracked by the broad-spectrum legal site “Lawfare” has been in progress since the start of this administration. Most of these lawsuits are directly related to Trump’s policies, prejudices, and anti-opposition initiatives.
Bondi has another problem. Her own legal situation and status are constantly being defined by global headlines. Even for a Trump appointee, this is a serious denouement and possibly a career-killer.
Trump appointees typically have very short tenures. There are simply too many fired appointees to do any degree of objective analysis.
The pattern, as I’ve seen it in two administrations, is:
A “loyal follower” is appointed.
The loyal follower is given specific tasks.
The tasks are impossible or rejected by the courts.
The loyal follower is fired and replaced by another.
Some appointees turn into enemies. Some get out of Dodge, fast.
The pattern repeats.
A cynical view of this assembly line of total failure at all levels is that appointees could also offer some level of shielding for the administration as responsible executives. They can be held responsible for their own actions. They’re instant scapegoats. That’s a bit too simple.
So what’s new, you ask? Now, it’s a very different and deadly ballgame.
The Epstein files are potential nukes for people in public office or associated with any of these matters. These are serious Federal crimes. Those associated with Epstein will naturally try to save their own skins. Fired appointees are meanwhile generating a large number of hostile witnesses equally interested in their own well-being. Each one is a potential bullet in the chamber for the prosecution.
There’s a lot of other stuff for the courts to talk about, too. Many major administration initiatives, in fact, just about all of them, like the global tariffs, have backfired badly. The legality of these initiatives, including ICE, DOGE, and other Project 2025 doodlings have come unstuck entirely, and there are many claims against the government for those actions.
Depending on federal and state court findings, these issues could destroy those involved and anyone associated if found guilty of malfeasance. Doesn’t matter who’s AG or Junior Vice Assistant Dogsbody.
I should also point out that new and/or retrospective legislation, if enacted by a hostile Congress as seems likely, could rewrite the rules for Presidential and administrative conduct.
This administration makes a bad habit of ignoring the future, and its future isn’t looking good. Maybe orange is the right color?
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
