Vicious catfight erupts between Trump’s leading ladies. Feud is talk of White House: ‘It’s real and it’s personal’
President Donald Trump summoned FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to the White House on Wednesday.
The president’s public schedule described the meeting as an update on the fight against violent crime. But once everyone was in the room, Trump made it clear he had something else in mind.
It was time, the president said, to speed the indictments of his political foes – the former officials who, he alleges, tried to destroy him and his family.
Pointing up at the portraits of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson which line the White House walls, Trump told his top law enforcement officers that those men had been more vilified by the Washington establishment than anyone else in American history.
That is until he came along. ‘Nobody’s been treated like I’ve been treated,’ the president claimed.
On September 21, Trump appointed Lindsey Halligan, one of his former personal lawyers, to run the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia office. The move overruled Bondi, who had tapped a conservative lawyer from Virginia, Mary ‘Maggie’ Cleary, for the role.
Halligan, a glamorous 36-year-old ex-beauty queen and Miss Colorado finalist, immediately got to work.
President Donald Trump summoned FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to the White House on Wednesday
On September 21, Trump appointed Lindsey Halligan (left, next to Press Secretary Lindsey Halligan), one of his former personal lawyers, to run the Justice Department’s Eastern District of Virginia office
Her office indicted former FBI Director James Comey (on charges of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice) in late September and New York Attorney General Letitia James in October (on charges of mortgage fraud related to a property in Virginia).
Then last week, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton was charged in Maryland with an 18-count indictment for illegally sending classified information to unauthorized people and keeping classified documents at his home.
Comey, James and Bolton have denied the charges against them.
Now, sources tell the Daily Mail that these indictments blindsided AG Bondi and senior Justice Department officials. They were furious, the Daily Mail is told, over what they saw as Halligan’s rogue move, even though it was in pursuit of Trump’s demands.
Several people familiar with the situation say Bondi has since tried to distance herself from all three cases.
‘It’s real and it’s personal,’ said one insider. ‘They both want to be the president’s enforcer.’
The result, according to our sources, is a vicious power struggle between two of the most prominent women in the Trump’s orbit.
Ultimately, insiders say Halligan’s role in the Justice Department is a move to encourage competition. And when two of his lieutenants compete, they say, Trump is usually the winner.
Meanwhile, the tension is clear for all to see.
Insiders say Halligan’s role in the Justice Department is a move to encourage competition. And when two of his lieutenants compete, they say, Trump is usually the winner
Now, sources tell The Daily Mail that these indictments blindsided AG Bondi and senior Justice Department officials
On September 20, the president posted public criticism of Bondi on Truth Social, calling on her to move against political opponents who were ‘guilty as hell,’ and he complained of ‘all talk, no action.’
‘JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!’ he concluded.
The public message was reportedly an accident – and one that Trump meant to send to Bondi as a private encouragement. But an insider dismissed that explanation as ‘ridiculous.’
‘That doesn’t sound like Trump,’ said the source, who is familiar with the dynamics of Trump and Bondi’s relationship. ‘If the president wants to send a message, he’ll pick up the phone and call them.’
The White House insists there is no rift between Trump and Bondi, and the president has ‘full confidence in her and in his entire team.’
‘Any insinuation otherwise is baseless gossip meant to divide the administration,’ a White House official told the Daily Mail.
Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin echoed the message, saying the department was ‘united as one team’ and would not be distracted by ‘palace intrigue or useless gossip.’
Publicly, Trump continues to praise Bondi even while privately urging her to move faster.
Back in the Oval Office on Wednesday, standing beside Bondi and Patel on Wednesday, Trump said he also wanted to see ‘deranged’ special counsel Jack Smith, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, ex-CIA director John Brennan and former FBI director Christopher Wray prosecuted.
They are ‘scum,’ he said, who treated him and his family ‘worse than any third-world country or banana republic.’
And, he appeared, to give his team a warning. ‘I don’t have to leave it up to them, but I choose to at this moment at least,’ he said.
