‘Abject Failure’: CNN’s Elie Honig Pours Salt on Pam Bondi’s Wounds in Post-Ouster Tirade

CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig showed no mercy as he dunked on former attorney general Pam Bondi mere moments after her ouster from the Department of Justice was announced.

Speaking on CNN News Central not long after her firing was reported, Honig dropped a tirade of epic proportion against Bondi, calling her an “abject failure” who “will go down in history as the attorney general who completely gave away DOJ’s independence.”

“Start with the Epstein files,” Honig said. “Everyone on both sides of the aisle agrees that she badly mishandled the Epstein files.”

Last year, Bondi bestowed conservative influencers with Jeffrey Epstein case binders later branded a “nothingburger” and famously bragged during a Fox News interview that an Epstein list was “sitting on my desk right now.”

Honig went on to slam Bondi for failing to release the Epstein files in time to meet a deadline set by Congress.

“She completely botched it,” he said.

Honig also brought up a contentious House Judiciary hearing in February, when Bondi insulted lawmakers and raved about how the “Dow right now is over 50,000!”

“It was an utter disaster,” he said. “She embarrassed herself. She basically relied on ad hominem insults and irrelevancies about the stock market.”

He went on to say that Bondi may have fallen out of favor with her boss, President Donald Trump, for failing to successfully prosecute any of his political opponents.

“She tried to indict those people, as you just noted,” Honig said. “She tried to indict Letitia James and Jim Comey and Michael Flynn, and Elissa Slotkin, and on down the line. She failed over and over again.”

“Scorched Earth Elie Honig,” remarked CNN News Central anchor Brianna Keilar as Honig concluded. “I know a lot of people share that opinion as you do, and you put it right out there with the facts of her tenure, but it really- it’s tough as you lay it out.

Read Honig’s full remarks below:

I think Pam Bondi’s legacy as an attorney general will be as an abject failure. And I think there’s broad agreement on that. Start with the Epstein files. Everyone on both sides of the aisle agrees that she badly mishandled the Epstein files. As Evan and Jeff just noted, she was the one who brought this back to the fore by making these grand promises about disclosing the Epstein files that ultimately she could not fill. When Congress passed a law requiring DOJ to produce the Epstein files, she completely botched it. DOJ acted more than a month late. They over redacted the names that should not have been taken out, they underredacted, they left victim information there. When she testified about this a month or so ago in front of Congress, it was an utter disaster. She embarrassed herself. She basically relied on ad hominem insults and irrelevancies about the stock market. So that’s No. 1. Beyond that, if you look beyond the Epstein files, she also has failed. Clearly, Donald Trump does not see Pam Bondi as a success. The reporting is from CNN and others that one of the main reasons is Donald Trump is unhappy that Pam Bondi was not aggressive enough in pursuing his opponents. But on the flip side, and I can tell you this as a DOJ alum, Pam Bondi will go down in history as the attorney general who completely gave away DOJ’s independence, independence from politics and keeping prosecution separate from politics. She tried to indict those people, as you just noted. She tried to indict Letitia James, and Jim Comey, and Michael Flynn and Elissa Slotkin and on down the line. She failed over and over again. And not only did she preside over DOJ’s loss of institutional independence, she facilitated it. And I think that will be her lasting legacy as the DOJ, as the attorney general who was there and who promoted DOJ’s absolute loss of political independence.

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