With Bondi out, Trump’s personal criminal attorney now runs Justice Department
ALSO INSIDE: Trump team argues citizenship should be based on loyalty
Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
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Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.
What Happened
President Donald Trump fired US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday, leaving in her place a man with two primary accomplishments: representing Trump during his criminal trials and spearheading the apparent cover-up of the Epstein Files.
According to NBC News, one of Trump’s primary frustrations with Bondi was her failure to properly bury her department’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi eventually transferred charge of the Epstein Files to her deputy, Todd Blanche. With her departure, Blanche now runs the DOJ until Trump nominates a permanent replacement.
Bondi’s removal comes weeks before she was scheduled to be deposed by the US House Oversight Committee as part of their investigation into the government’s handling of its case against Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices, clients, and enablers. US Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA), who sits on the committee and has led the charge to hold Bondi accountable, said she fully expects the former attorney general to show up, regardless of her employment status.
“It needs to still happen, because she still needs to answer to her role in this cover-up,” said Lee. “And it’s important that we not let them off the hook for that right now, because that’s what they’re trying to do. Our investigation is still very underway, and it’s all very serious. With the crime of a potential cover-up and obstruction of justice, she can’t be allowed to just sail off to the next job or the private sector.”
The rise and fall of Bondi’s tenure at the DOJ is directly tied to her handling of the Epstein Files release, and consistent pressure from Lee has kept her apparent cover-up at the forefront. In July 2025, Lee successfully passed a motion in the Oversight Committee to force the DOJ to release the full, unredacted Epstein Files to the committee.
After six months of noncompliance, Lee moved to hold Bondi in contempt. She then convinced the Republican-led committee in March to subpoena Bondi, which many believe led directly to her firing — presumably so she could avoid testifying under oath now that she’s a private citizen.
But Lee and others on the committee say the subpoena still stands, and Blanche, the interim attorney general, is now responsible for delivering the full, unredacted Epstein Files to the Oversight Committee.
“We’re prepared to continue this investigation with whoever is running the Department of Justice,” said Lee. “The Department of Justice is supposed to be led by an impartial, nonpartisan attorney general. This is not supposed to be the president’s personal attorney.”
But the man now leading the DOJ was exactly that — and by all accounts, still considers himself to be Trump’s personal attorney. Blanche first started working for Trump in 2023, when he started his own law firm with the sole purpose of representing Trump in his criminal trials.
After Trump won reelection, Blanche was placed in the DOJ as Bondi’s deputy, where he’s been utilized primarily as the president’s “fixer.” Assignments have ranged from running the Library of Congress to negotiating a sweetheart deal for Epstein accomplice Ghislane Maxwell — and now, as the department head, to stonewall any investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking network.
“The Epstein files has been a saga that’s lasted for the entire for the past year,” Blanche said in a Fox News interview. “I think that, to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward.”
Blanche has declared the Epstein saga over since January, when the DOJ released half of the 6 million documents from its investigation into Epstein. Members of Congress, however, believe it to be far from over, and the turnover at the DOJ seems to have reignited interest in uncovering what Blanche and Bondi have kept hidden.
“Congratulations AG Blanche,” US Rep Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted online. “Now you have 30 days to release the rest of the files before becoming criminally liable for failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
Attempts to Sanewash
What to know about Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick for acting attorney general
What new acting AG Todd Blanche has said about Epstein files
Far-Right Spin
Pam Bondi’s Tenure As Trump’s Overpromising AG Comes To Abrupt End
Pam Bondi Fired: A Look at Her Work for Freedom, Families and Children
It’s easy for individual members of Congress to get overlooked by national outlets as they quietly skate to reelection again, and again, and again. The following is an overview of different congressional representatives you may not have heard of, with fun facts about their origin stories they’ve tried to keep out of the public narrative.
US Sen. Mike Crapo, Idaho
Since taking office in 1999, Sen. Crapo has:
Seen his net worth increase from $1.4 million to $3.8 million
Sponsored 618 bills
Authored 11 bills that have been signed into law
Had his license suspended for a year in 2013 for drunk driving
Initially stated that January 6 rioters should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” only to later support their pardons and call them “political prisoners”
Avoided holding a public town hall since 2022, but regularly hosts private, Republican-only forum
Fun Facts
Sen. Crapo has established himself in Congress as a leader in fiscal policy and was made chair of the powerful Finance Committee in 2025. His use of campaign funds, however, paints a much more fiscally irresponsible picture.
While Crapo raises an impressive amount of money for a Republican senator in a red state, his stewardship of his supporters’ contributions is lackluster at best. His campaign almost never files its finance reports accurately or on time, resulting in some serious accounting mishaps. In 2008, for example, Crapo was completely oblivious to the fact that a staffer had taken out a $250,000 loan that was never paid back.
The political action committees (PACs) bankrolling Crapo aren’t much better. An ethics complaint was lodged against him regarding his Freedom Fund PAC’s use of campaign funds. At the time, his wife had received approximately $200,000 in campaign funds. She would receive smaller amounts before an election — presumably to avoid raising any suspicion — followed by lump sums shortly after the results were in.
Despite this record, Crapo has been awarded one of the most coveted chairmanships in the Senate and has already used it to aid Trump in his quest to cripple the US economy. In February 2025, he killed Democratic Sen. Chris Coons’ STABLE Trade Policy Act, which would have required Congress to sign off on any tariffs.
Wednesday’s Supreme Court case may not just be about birthright citizenship — it could grant the President of the United States the power to denaturalize citizens he deems disloyal.
Buried in legal filings, Trump’s team has laid the groundwork to give the president final say over who obtains — and retains — US citizenship. Their argument is that the Fourteenth Amendment “conveys that persons must be completely subject to the political jurisdiction” of the United States, i.e., that they have a “direct and immediate allegiance” to this country.”
Essentially, the argument is that those who are in families deemed disloyal to the United States shouldn’t be recognized as citizens, and that the president is the one who determines who is loyal and who has proper allegiance.
The case they’re making before the Justices today is that “the President has determined that the United States has experienced “an unprecedented flood of illegal immigration” in which “[m]illions of illegal aliens”—many of whom “present significant threats to national security and public safety”—have entered the country in violation of federal law,” and that no one who meets that bar set by the president is eligible for citizenship.
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But immigrants are far from the only group President Trump describes that way: similar language has been used to describe members of Congress, protestors, community activists, political opponents, and anyone who is a member of the Democratic Party.
The direct impact of the US Supreme Court siding with Trump would end birthright citizenship for the children of non-citizens, but the precedent it would set would give the President of the United States the power to determine someone’s citizenship status.
Attorneys working on the case worry that if Trump successfully begins to chip away at citizenship rights, he won’t stop with the 14th Amendment, and citizenship revocation won’t be limited to the children of immigrants, — it could be weaponized against any US citizen.
“It could certainly be interpreted that way and that’s why this is so dangerous,” said one attorney, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity. “You could make the case that they’re not loyal, then what does loyalty mean, you know? And who decides who is subject to this jurisdiction, if you’re opening it up to tinker with the Constitution?”
Trump has made it very clear that he wants the power to de-naturalize US citizens, and has even begun staffing immigration offices with people whose assignment is to find 100 to 200 people to de-naturalize every month.
And if the Supreme Court rules that allegiance to the country — and, by extension, the right to citizenship — is subject to presidential determination, it’s going to make their job a whole lot easier.
For a deep dive, check out this week’s edition of Grave Injustice: The Roberts Court Entertains Donald Trump’s Claim That He Can Unilaterally Strip Americans’ Citizenship
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Thank you, Mr. Stevenson.
Michael Cohen wants a pardon from Trump. He can go back as Trump’s personal attorney. Maybe Lara Trump will get him back into Trump’s orbit.