MS NOW Defends Bondi Portrait Report Amid Onslaught of Criticism From Trump DOJ

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

MS NOW defended its report showing a portrait of former Attorney Pam Bondi that had been unceremoniously thrown in the trash at federal offices following her firing by President Donald Trump, after the Department of Justice trashed the story as “fake news.”

A network spokesperson told Mediaite Friday that the network “stands by its reporting” on the portrait after MS NOW reporter Ken Dilanian exclusively obtained a photo showing Bondi’s portrait in a garbage can, reportedly taken from inside DOJ offices, just one day after her ouster.

The image was published on the network’s website on Friday in an article by Dilanian, who later profiled the piece in an on-air segment that afternoon.

“Current and former DOJ officials said it’s a reflection of how deeply unpopular Bondi was,” Dilanian wrote, who also tweeted out the image.

Reacting to the report, the Justice Department’s Rapid Response communications team quickly posted a screengrab of Dilanian’s tweet, branding it “fake news,” alongside an image of a Bondi portrait hanging on a wall, which it dubbed “real news.”

Notably, the portrait in Dilanian’s image appears to be different from the one in the DOJ’s rebuttal, which contains no mounting board.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon also piled on and called out Dilanian directly, calling the report “extremely tacky.”

In his piece, Dilanian had noted that several officials revealed private frustration over an early incident in Bondi’s tenure, when she entered a secure area within the Justice Department’s national security division and noticed that portraits of former President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland were still displayed following Trump’s inauguration. In response, Bondi demoted a widely respected career official over the oversight.

In subsequent interviews, he added, Bondi said she personally removed the portraits, framing the episode as indicative of what she described as a broader cultural bias within the department.

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