Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb on Friday said that the Trump administration would face humiliation if it were to dismiss Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein file controversy.
“If he terminates one of them, he picked them, and he put them in those senior positions — it’ll be a huge embarrassment to him,” Cobb said referring to the hypothetical dismissal of Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing his own firestorm after freezing weapons shipments to Ukraine without the approval of the president, during an appearance on CNN’s “OutFront” with Erin Burnett as highlighted by Mediate.
“The further down the pecking order you go, if you’re Trump, in his thinking, if somebody leaves that’s further down, if it’s not the top dog, it’s not as big a reflection on him,” added Cobb, who served in Trump’s first administration, as some lower level officials, including the FBI’s deputy director Dan Bongino are fuming at the Justice Department’s response.
Bondi, in recent days, has come under intense scrutiny over her handling of files relating to the Epstein case, drawing backlash from those within her party over comments pledging transparency.
The White House maintains that the reported tension is baseless, however.
Earlier this year, Bondi provided high-profile conservative influencers with binders labeled “The Epstein Files Phase I,” which reportedly detailed the sexual exploitation of over 250 underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.
It turns out, however, there was no new information to glean from the binders.
This sparked uproar from the MAGA world, which has been captivated by the the so-called files for years, prompting conspiracy theories about the financier’s death.
Earlier this week, the Justice Department and FBI released a memo on Monday stating there was no evidence Epstein was murdered or that he kept a “client list,” further aggravating the base, including some administration officials, such as Bongino, who have promoted theories about his death.
Multiple outlets on Friday reported that he is even mulling resigning from his post at the FBI amid the tiff.
Cobb, however, maintained that Bondi is “not going” anywhere amid the disagreement.
“And I think what you’ll see is that Bongino… has to come back from the weekend, and say, ‘Gee, sorry I had a bad day,’” Cobb continued, adding that “he’s gone” if that’s not the case.
Conversative pundits, including Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, have railed against Bondi, with the latter going so far as to say that the Justice Department’s top official “is covering up crimes — very serious crimes, by their own description.”
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