Pam Bondi Was a Fox News Regular. Then the Epstein Scandal Happened.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has all but disappeared from Fox News in recent weeks, after being all over the network during the first few months of the Trump administration.

Bondi’s last appearance as a guest on Fox News was with Sean Hannity on June 30th, days before her DOJ and the FBI released a joint memo concluding that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself and did not keep a “client list.”

Bondi subsequently found herself on the receiving end of a firestorm of anger from the MAGA base, which had been assured by President Donald Trump, Bondi, and others in the administration that the “truckload” of Epstein evidence would be made available to the public.

Bondi’s lack of Fox News appearances since the memo’s release is particularly noteworthy given her long history with the network and just how much she appeared on the network beforehand.

In 2018, while serving as Florida’s attorney general, Bondi co-hosted Fox’s The Five and has been a regular commentator on the network for years, especially in the wake of her representing Trump during his first impeachment trial and during his challenging of the 2020 presidential election.

Bondi took over as attorney general on February 5th and by mid-April had been on the network’s weekday programming more than a dozen times. Her appearances were so frequent that by March, it led to frustration among some of the MAGA rank-and-file, who were already getting impatient for the Epstein files to drop.

“Furious MAGA turns on Pam Bondi after ‘unprecedented’ number of Fox News appearances,” read one headline in late March, which followed Bondi releasing binders of Epstein files to MAGA influencers, who later criticized the information as meaningless.

One possible explanation for Bondi ditching her on-air Fox appearances can be found in some of the headlines the network ran following the joint DOJ-FBI memo.

“Bondi under siege after DOJ reveals no Epstein client list,” read a July 7th headline on Fox News digital, outlining the MAGA anger directed at Bondi over some of her past claims, including telling Fox News she had the Epstein list “on her desk right now.”

On July 12th, Fox covered the spat between Bondi and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino under the headline, “Inside Dan Bongino’s tense meeting with White House officials over Jeffrey Epstein fallout.” At the time, reports claimed Bongino was ready to quit his role if Bondi stayed in hers. Trump, however, strongly stood behind Bondi, and both have since remained in their jobs with their spat quickly fading from the news.

Bondi did appear briefly on Fox on July 18th, but not as a guest. Fox joined Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as they toured Alcatraz Island amid Trump publicly calling for the prison to be reopened, and she spoke briefly to correspondent David Spunt during their visit.

Bondi still generates significant coverage on Fox News. Her announcement on Thursday of a $50 million bounty for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, for example, was widely covered on the network, but unlike in previous months, Bondi did not personally come on air to discuss the move, even though it will undoubtedly be very popular with the MAGA base.

Whether or not Bondi returns to Fox’s air anytime soon will be something to watch out for as the backlash to the Epstein case either evaporates or continues to grip many in the MAGA base.

Willa Pope Robbins contributed additional reporting.