President Donald Trump likely didn't believe the Epstein files would "be this problematic for him" and won't fire Attorney General Pam Bondi because "it will be a huge embarrassment to him," says former White House lawyer Ty Cobb.
"The way the day started was [Laura Loomer] leaking the fact that, you know, [FBI Deputy Director Dan] Bongino was mad and not at work. And her later call on [FBI Director Kash] Patel to also join Bongino in calling for Bondi's firing.
"Clearly she has an agenda," Cobb told CNN on Friday.
"I think Patel clearly has gotten the message because he's sort of silently sat on the sidelines and rallied behind the team concept that the White House and the Justice department are trying to sell, and I think what you'll see is that Bongino either has to come back from the weekend, you know, and he says, gee, sorry, had a bad day and [that] he looks forward to working with his esteemed colleagues and moving forward. Or he's gone because Bondi is not going," he added.
"Bondi, like [Pete] Hegseth, is very senior to the other people in their departments who are screwing up and while they've both been a huge embarrassment and done some just astonishing things, and for the history of the country, if he terminates one of them, he picked them and he put him in those senior positions, and it will be a huge embarrassment to him," he said.
Loomer on Friday called on Patel and Bongino to ask for Bondi's public resignation, writing on social media that the pair had clashed with Bondi over the investigation.
"Pam Blondi is very damaging to President Trump's image. She drags the administration down and the base doesn't want her as AG," Loomer wrote in a post on X. "She is harming Trump's administration and she's embarrassing all of his staff and advisors by creating a PR crisis for them. It's incredibly unfair to President Trump and his team."
Trump earlier this week leaped to Bondi's defense in the face of mounting criticism from far-right influencers and conservative internet personalities over the Justice Department's abrupt refusal to release additional documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.