Attorney General Pam Bondi has reportedly been moved to secure housing on a Washington, D.C. area military base after she received threats from drug cartels and those angry over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to a new report.
Sometime in the past month, Bondi was moved out of an apartment in Washington, D.C. after federal law enforcement officials flagged the threats against her, The New York Times reports, citing “people familiar with the situation.”
Bondi reportedly began receiving threats in the wake of the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, a senior official with direct knowledge told The NYT.
The report did not include specific details of any of the threats made against Bondi.
She isn’t the only Trump administration official who has been moved onto military bases to protect them from blowback.
President Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — widely seen as the architect of Trump’s heavy-handed anti-immigration agenda — has also been moved into protective housing.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Department of Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have also been placed in secured housing.
All of the officials are the public faces of Trump’s most controversial undertakings — his foreign policy, his anti-immigration agenda, and his military adventurism — and now Bondi, the face of the Justice Department that handled the Epstein case, will join them. The report did not disclose the exact location of the base where the AG has been moved.
It’s unclear if Bondi and the rest of Trump’s front-liners are paying to stay on the bases. Last year, before she was ousted, Noem told The NYT that she was paying “fair-market rent” for her on-base housing.
U.S. officials who are at risk of being targeted by domestic or foreign threats taking up residence on military bases is not an unprecedented practice. During Trump’s first term, Mike Pompeo similarly stayed on a base, as did Trump’s then-Defense Secretary James Mattis.
During former President George W. Bush’s administration, his Defense Secretary Robert Gates, stayed in naval housing near Washington, D.C. In 1974, Congress approved the use of the U.S. Naval Observatory for use as the vice president’s residence.
Bondi’s move to base housing reportedly occurred around or just after the Super Bowl, based on the report. During this year’s Super Bowl, the survivors of Epstein’s crimes ran a televised public service announcement pleading with Bondi to adhere to the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and release all of the documents the government has regarding the investigation.
“Stand With Us, Tell Attorney General Pam Bondi It’s Time For The Truth,” the PSA said.
Bondi and the Department of Justice released more than 3.5 million documents relating to Epstein in late January, some 42 days after it was legally required to do so. But the public later learned there were documents pertaining to Epstein that, for reasons unknown, the Justice Department did not make public. That revelation gave rise to renewed suspicions of a cover-up by the Trump administration.
Bondi has faced criticism not only for failing to release all of the Epstein files, but also for failing to properly redact the files that were released. She was forced to remove thousands of published Epstein documents because they contained names and other identifying information about victims.
“This latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files is being sold as transparency, but what it actually does is expose survivors,” Epstein victims wrote in a statement following the release. “Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected. That is outrageous,”
They continued, saying that “as survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinized, and re-traumatized while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from secrecy.”
“This is a betrayal of the very people this process is supposed to serve,” the letter said.
The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Justice.
