The search is on for a new United States Attorney General, after President Trump removed Pam Bondi from the position last week. Plenty of members of the GOP have their ideas on who President Trump should nominate, but the consensus has been pretty consistent among lawmakers and voters alike. The next AG needs to be tough, strong and fearless.
That is not to say Bondi's time was a total disaster. Crime is down in major cities, there have been numerous court wins for President Trump, it has not been all bad. The handling of the Epstein files though was likely the nail in her coffin as AG, with people still ranting and raving over files that, ultimately, will accomplish nothing.
Texas Congressman Chip Roy is among the GOP members who is urging the President to nominate an aggressive AG to replace Bondi. He said to recently on Fox, calling for the next leader of the DOJ to deliver results and now just "show and statements." Whoever it might be needs to have guts to stand up to the radical judges we have in the country and move the Trump agenda forward.
Former U.S. Attorney Jay Town says the next leader of the DOJ has two main things to accomplish. The first is putting the Epstein files to bed for good by confronting people with the cold hard truth. That is the fact the crimes in these files will never be prosecuted.
"It is awful that anyone was abused...but we also have laws in this country, and you cannot just prosecute people when the statue of limitations has run," he says.
Newer laws and statues have made future prosecution for these kinds of crimes better. For example, the Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act now has removed federal statutes of limitations on child sexual abuse claims. If this kind of thing were to happen in the future, people would likely be prosecuted even 20 years down the line. But the Epstein crimes happened well over 15 years ago, or longer.
Beyond that, prosecuting the cases is a long shot in itself. There is no substantial evidence in any of these cases. Last anyone checked, just having your name mentioned in some files is not grounds for conviction. That applies to anyone mentioned in the files. So, in reality, the Epstein files are already dead. But the next AG needs to make that known without question.
The other task is a bit more challenging because it involves Congress, which is as useless as a sundial at night. The Senate in particular has been slow walking these "blue slips" in U.S. attorney nominations. Essentially, the Senate Judiciary Committee gets to solicit the opinion of senators from the nominees' home state, and they can return a positive or negative response. Unreturned slips lead to delays, which is where we are now.
So, the other big step is simply restaffing the Department of Justice to its full capacity.
"The AG needs a team...not two-thirds of a team," says Town. "There are about 57 of them right now, they need to get all 93 in office, and on board."
The DOJ is essentially not working with a full deck of cards. It is almost impossible to tackle all the issues we have ongoing int he country with a half-cocked DOJ.
The good news though, if there is any, is that Bondi has laid some solid groundwork for the next person. So, the focus can be on implementing change instead of babysitting chaos.
"Those two things are herculean right now...but they should not take longer than 2026," Town says. "So, then going forward, they can just do the business of the Justice Department."
As for who President Trump makes this permanent AG is a mystery. Deputy AG Todd Blanche is currently the interim. Town adds that making Blanche the permanent AG would be a good choice.
But one thing is for certain. The next AG has some critical tasks at hand. They need to be not just fearless, but hungry.
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