SICKOFITRADLZ: Bondi fired as Chump's personal attorney (she was never the AG for the American people)

Thursday, Elaine's "Good riddance, Pam Bondi is gone as AG" went up covering Bondi. I'm going to cover the topic tonight.

I think she was awful and out of control and betraying the country as she acted as though she were Donald Chump's attorney -- his personal attorney -- and not the head of the US Justice Department. I think her behavior when appearing before Congress was outrageous and offensive.

I think she existed to distract from The Epstein Files and to lie about them and cover up for Donald Chump's involvement.

On Epstein, Michael Lucian (Mediaite) notes:

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) alleged that President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi to prevent her from testifying about Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump fired Bondi on Thursday and showered her with praise on the way out.

In October, Trump’s frustration with Bondi became public when he seemingly inadvertently posted on Truth Social what was meant to be a direct message to the attorney general. In the post, which began, “Pam,” Trump complained that the Justice Department’s cases against some of his political enemies were moving too slowly.

Bondi also took bipartisan heat over her handling of the Epstein files, all of which the DOJ was supposed to release in December, per a federal law enacted last year. The department has released many, but not all, of the files. Additionally, only the names of victims were supposed to be redacted. Yet, the files feature the redactions of the names of people who were not victims.

Moulton appeared on MS NOW on Thursday, where he noted that Bondi was set to testify about Epstein before the House Oversight Committee in less than two weeks.

“But let’s be more specific about what’s going on here,” Moulton said. “She was about to be deposed in the Epstein case. That’s why Trump got rid of her 12 days before that was supposed to happen.”

I would agree with that. In addition, Dace Potas (USA Today) observes:

During her tenure heading the federal law enforcement agency, the ordinary separation between the president and the DOJ was completely torn down. Bondi made no attempt to differentiate her mission, which is supposed to be fair and equal justice, and Trump’s own personal aims. There is little room for even the illusion of impartiality when portraits of Trump’s face are hung from the side of the DOJ building in the nation's capital.

Her transparent obedience to the president will leave a lasting stain on the institution. Bondi has framed her job as attorney general as carrying out Trump’s law enforcement priorities. While the attorney general is appointed by the president, past attorneys general have taken a more impartial approach, as demanded by the true pursuit of justice. Even though there have certainly been past criticisms of the impartiality of certain attorneys general, none has come close to the level of Bondi's cronyism.

It hasn’t just been optics that have eroded the reputation of the DOJ:

In 2025, three federal prosecutors resigned after they were asked to drop the case against former New York Mayor (and Trump ally) Eric Adams.
Several very thin cases have been brought against Trump’s political opponents, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The DOJ has even pursued a case transparently designed to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into lowering interest rates against his better judgment.

Not only did Bondi's tenure massively erode the credibility of the DOJ, but she also failed at her own warped goals. Her Justice Department has failed to secure indic tments in a number of high-profile retributive cases against Trump’s opponents, and failed to convict protesters charged with assaulting federal officers, in many cases a trumped-up charge (no pun intended).

Pam Bondi is a disgrace and she did not serve this country.

She served Donald Chump and betrayed her post. Chump? As MeidasTouch News notes below, he continues to decay before our eyes.

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Friday, April 3, 2026. Chump fires Bondi, Hegseth fires generals (in the midst of a war, no less), Kristi and Corey's tawdry show continues, polling shows Chump growing even more unpopular, Senator Patty Murray calls out Chump's illegal transfer of student loan debt to the treasury department, and much more.

Tuesday night, Bruce Springsteen kicked off his Land of Hope and Dreams tour in Minneapolis. From all accounts, it was a great concert. He stated onstage, "Our Justice Department has completely abdicated its independence, and our Attorney General Pam Bondi takes her marching orders straight from a corrupt White House. She prosecutes our president's perceived enemies, covers up for his misdeeds. And protects his powerful friends. This is happening now."

And it probably will continue to happen under Chump.

But not under Pam da Bimbo Bondi. As Elaine noted yesterday in "Good riddance, Pam Bondi is gone as AG," Pam's gone. Chump fired her yesterday. She will be with the department for another month as she trains Deputy AG Todd Blanche to take over the duties of the Attorney General. Chump has made Blanche the interim AG while he looks for someone to nominate.

Glenn Thrush (NYT) notes:

Stacey Young, the founder of Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department employees, said Pam Bondi had taken a “sledgehammer” to the department and its workforce, causing damage that could take decades to rebuild. But she said she believed President Trump had dismissed Bondi only because “she didn’t go far enough.”

She may also have been dismissed due to the Epstein files. Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:

Bondi’s ouster is the culmination of Trump’s growing frustrations around the intense, inadvertent scrutiny that she brought upon the administration, as she went from saying the Epstein client list was on her desk, to claiming it didn’t exist, to handing out big dramatic white binders for a photo op with MAGA influencers that contained no new information. She continuously tried and failed to declare the case closed, while exposing Epstein’s victims to more abuse by identifying them in the files. Eventually, even Republicans on the House Oversight Committee agreed to subpoena Bondi over her “possible mismanagement” of the files.

There were probably many reasons. I'll hold my tongue on one of them. But as for Epstein, it had already been reported that Chump was not happy when Pam announced she had The Epstein Files on her desk. He was said to have been surprised by that announcement and had told Susie Wiles that Bondi was trying to get press for herself. She was said to have been called to the carpet over those remarks immediately after she made them on FOX "NEWS."

Since these remarks later became more important -- Bondi warns Chump in May that he's in The Epstein Files much more than anyone thought -- because suddenly the files are not going to be released. This causes the huge headache for Chump -- even before this year's revelation that Jane Doe 4 told the FBI on three different visits that Chump assaulted her when she was a teenager -- that builds and builds into the scandal that it is today.

So not only was he mad at her the day she announced on FOX "NEWS" that The Epstein Client Files were sitting on her desk and would be released shortly, but this was also the initiating incident that first peeled the teflon of Chump.

Of Blanche, Farrah Tomazin (DAILY BEAST) notes:

The former Trump attorney interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell and oversaw her sweetheart prison deal, and has also been publicly prosecuting the case to not release all the files in the department’s possession.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Blanche said he was aware of some of the concerns MAGA’s rank-and-file had expressed about the Justice Department, which they believe had been weaponized under past administrations.

“The attorney general Pam Bondi, the president and myself—we are changing things,” he sought to assure the unconvinced crowd.

Pam Bondi is, of course, still set to be deposed by a Congressional Committee. Michael Gold (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

The House Oversight Committee was scheduled to depose Pam Bondi on April 14 over the Justice Department’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its handling of investigative material in the case. But Bondi had not yet committed to appearing, according to people familiar with the discussions between her and the committee.

Representative Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a statement that Bondi was still “legally obligated to appear before our committee under oath,” and Representative Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who moved to subpoena for Bondi, said that “my subpoena still stands.”

Whether she will appear before the Committee or not remains to be seen. If she does appear, no one knows as yet whether or not she'll bring her slam book with her so she can flip through it and serve up insults that she's prepared ahead of time. The House Oversight Committee Democrats did issue a statement yesterday -- but on Homeland Security:

Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, demanded answers from William Walters regarding Salus Worldwide Solutions and his other companies as Oversight Democrats escalate their probe into Corey Lewandowski’s alleged pay-to-play scheme at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Salus Worldwide Solutions and Walters’ other companies may have been awarded profitable DHS contracts under suspicious contracting conditions. In 2025, Salus drew attention after winning a three-year contract worth nearly $1 billion amid allegations DHS ignored regulatory standards and competition requirements.

“Every day, we find new evidence that corruption tied to Corey Lewandowski runs deep inside the Department of Homeland Security. Our taxpayer dollars may have been diverted to pay off connected insiders on a massive scale. Oversight Democrats are focused on identifying every suspicious contract and demanding answers from the companies involved. We will not stop until this corruption is fully exposed and those responsible are held accountable,” saidRanking Member Robert Garcia.

In the letter to Salus Worldwide Solutions CEO William Walters, Ranking Member Garcia wrote, “Mr. Lewandowski may have used his position in the Trump Administration and close relationships to President Trump and Secretary Noem to enrich himself while serving as a special government employee (SGE) by shaking down contractors for kickbacks. Recent reporting connects one of your companies, Salus Worldwide Solutions (Salus), to Mr. Lewandowski’s alleged pay-to-play scheme, allegedly directing subcontractors to funnel taxpayer dollars to consultants affiliated with Mr. Lewandowski. Additionally, Salus and several related companies were awarded substantial contracts under questionable circumstances during Mr. Lewandowski’s tenure. We ask for your cooperation in our investigation.”

This letter is an escalation of Oversight Democrats’ investigation into Corey Lewandowski’s role at the Department of Homeland Security. Last month, Ranking Member Garcia demanded answers from GEO Group after new NBC News reporting alleged Corey Lewandowski, a Special Government Employee at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), attempted a pay-to-play scheme with the private prison company over DHS contracts. Ranking Member Garcia also joined Rep. Rick Larsen, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, to demand an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General into Corey Lewandowski’s employment. Additionally, the Ranking Members wrote directly to DHS and demanded all communications and internal records regarding Corey Lewandowski’s involvement in DHS personnel and contracting decisions.

In September, Ranking Member Garcia wrote to the Office of Government Ethics and to then Secretary Kristi Noem demanding the public release of Corey Lewandowski’s financial disclosures, which they have illegally failed to produce. Lewandowski meets the qualifications to be a public filer, meaning that legally, his financial disclosures must be made public.

In August, Ranking Member Garcia wrote to then-Secretary Kristi Noem regarding Corey Lewandowski’s employment as a Special Government Employee, demanding a complete accounting of his service days (including records and logs), assessment on whether he has exceeded his 130 day limit as an SGE, all documents and communications regarding his role in personnel decisions (firing/hiring) and grant approvals in FEMA operations, and all documents and direct communications between Lewandowski and any lobbying firm, lobbyist, or government contracting consultant.

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Corey's got other things on his mind of late. TMZ notes:

Kristi Noem has had a very tough week with the embarrassing news of her cross-dressing husband -- but one person she can always count on to be by her side is her political advisor, Corey Lewandowski -- and that hasn't changed one bit, according to a new report.

The New York Post says Corey has got Kristi's back despite the alleged photos published Tuesday in the Daily Mail, showing Bryon Noem dressing up like a Barbie doll with augmented silicone breasts and tight pink spandex shorts. Bryon reportedly dove into a bizarre online fetish world called “bimbofication” in which he led a secret life chatting with other fetishists and sharing his cross-dressing photos, which were eventually leaked.

Marni Rose McFall (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Webcam model Lydia Love has alleged that Bryon Noem, husband of the former Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, Kristi Noem, was a client of hers.

In an interview with British newspaper The Times, Love, who the newspaper says uses a stage name, said: “I definitely remember his face, but there’s no way I could ever forget the fake chest.”

Love shared the interview to her social media, where she has made further comments about the situation, her decision to speak about it publicly and the criticism she has received in response.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Love said in a video shared to her Instagram, and said: “When the pictures came out, I recognized his face.”

We're noting that because if Kristi said her husband was gay (see yesterday's snapshot) that does not appear to be accurate. Did she say it? I have no idea. But it is the sort of thing a woman having an affair might say in order to justify her affair. I didn't know he was a cross dresser but I had been told that he had a fetish. And this was about three or four months ago. And I was told Kristi knew about it. This was not a surprise to her. She's now attempting to pretend it is and save face in public. But this fetish was encouraged by Kristi in the past.

For those who are still confused, Kat Blaque explains Byron Noem's fetish in the video below.

Before he fired Bondi, Chump fired Noem. Jacob Wendler (POLITICO) reports a new development at Homeland Security:

The Department of Homeland Secretary on Wednesday revoked a Noem-era policy requiring the secretary to personally approve contracts and grants worth over $100,000, one of Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s first moves as he inherits a department mired in controversy.

DHS confirmed that the policy had been rescinded, saying in a statement that Mullin “re-evaluated” the department’s contract processes to ensure it best serves taxpayers.

"Today, the Secretary rescinded the $100,000 contract review memo," DHS said in the statement. "This will streamline the contract process and empower components to carry out their mission to protect the homeland and make America safe again."

Are you getting how important that policy change was? When Camp Mystic was flooded back in July of last year, Kristi Noem had many other things to take care of. For example, THE ECONOMIC TIMES reported:

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing massive backlash on social media after she asked her followers to pick which portrait of her on horseback they prefer. Noem called on her social media followers to help choose a Western-themed portrait of her that will be on display in South Dakota’s state Capitol building. “Which one do you like for the official Governor’s portrait to hang in the South Dakota State Capitol?” Noem asked her nearly 500,000 Instagram followers in a Monday post.

[. . .]

At the time she posted the photo, dozens had died as a result of the floods; that number has since climbed to more than 100 people.

And Mary Whitfill Roeloffs (FORBES) noted:

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, tasked with responding to widespread disasters like the recent flash flooding in central Texas, have said the implementation of red tape by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hampered the agency's response to the disaster late last week and delayed the deployment of federal search and rescue crews by 72 hours.

Key Facts

Unnamed sources inside FEMA reportedly told CNN and the New York Times that new policies, including one that requires Noem personally sign off on any spending request over $100,000, slowed responses and removed autonomy from agency employees.

In the case of the central Texas floods, search and rescue crews specially trained to respond to catastrophic floods couldn't be deployed until Noem personally gave her stamp of approval, which didn't come until "more than 72 hours after the flooding began,” according to CNN.

Also reportedly delayed: A request from Texas first responders for aerial imagery from FEMA to help in the state’s search and rescue operations, which also needed Noem’s personal approval.

So Markwayne Mullin has made at least one improvement since taking over as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Be great if he proved to be the exception in the administration. Alison Durkee (FORBES) reports:

Senate Democrats have joined their House counterparts in investigating allegations Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to make a “multimillion-dollar investment” in defense stocks right before the Iran War—which the defense secretary has strongly denied—raising questions about the ethics of such a purchase but also how Hegseth would’ve funded such a major money transfer.

Hegseth’s stock broker at Morgan Stanley reached out to BlackRock in February, before the Iran invasion, about making a “multimillion-dollar investment” in the firm’s ETF for defense stocks, the Financial Times reports based on multiple anonymous sources, and the inquiry was flagged internally at BlackRock.

[. . .]

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee were first to launch an investigation following the Financial Times report, sending letters Tuesday to Hegseth, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock in light of the reporting. “Attempting to profit from a war you helped engineer using insider information is shocking and outrageous even by the standards of the Trump Administration,” the Democrats wrote to Hegseth, asking him to preserve all communications regarding his financial investments and turn over documents to the committee by April 14. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., then sent a letter to Hegseth Wednesday evening that argues the Financial Times’ reporting would be a “serious breach of the public's trust” if accurate, and asks him to answer questions about his finances and what steps he’s taking to avoid conflicts of interest.

Last night and this morning, MEIDASTOUCH NEWS reported on Hegsth firing in the midst of the ongoing Iran war.

Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBIC) notes:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the highest-ranking Army officer in the country in the middle of the U.S. war on Iran.

On Thursday, CBS News reported that Hegseth had asked Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, to step down and retire. The Biden appointee’s term was set to end in 2027; Army chiefs of staff typically serve four-year terms. George joins more than a dozen high-ranking military officers who have been fired since Hegseth and his ultra-hawkish ideology took over at the Pentagon.

Greg Jaffe, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) report:

The tension with Mr. Hegseth was not rooted in substantive differences over the direction of the Army, military officials said. Rather it is the product of Mr. Hegseth’s long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the officials said.

Over the last year, General George and Mr. Driscoll had formed a tight partnership, officials said.

Mr. Hegseth has also clashed in recent months with General George and Mr. Driscoll over the defense secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consisted of 29 other officers, most of whom are white men. Mr. Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove the officers prompted some senior military officials to question whether they were being singled out because of their race or gender, officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing Mr. Driscoll and General George for months to remove the officers from the promotion list. But Mr. Driscoll and General George refused, citing the officers’ long records of exemplary service.

Two weeks ago, General George asked Mr. Hegseth to meet with him to discuss the removal of the four officers from the one-star list, as well as the general’s view that Mr. Hegseth was interfering unnecessarily in Army personnel decisions overall, the officials said. Mr. Hegseth refused to meet with General George about the matter, they said.

[. . .]

In addition to removing General George, Mr. Hegseth also fired Gen. David M. Hodne, who was promoted in October to lead the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, a key four-star position focused on Army modernization and doctrine.

Mr. Hegseth also fired Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s top chaplain, an official said.

In the midst of a war, Hegseth is firing generals? A war that has gone very poorly and is extremely unpopular?

The American people don't like the war and they don't like Chump.

Donald Chump and his administration struggle to be seen as competent and ethical by the American people. Chump's polling is not going well. Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) notes:

Young voters are abandoning President Donald Trump, with new polling showing his standing among Gen Z collapsing sharply in just a matter of weeks.

[. . .]

Trump’s approval rating among Americans aged 18 to 34 has deteriorated dramatically since the start of the year, according to two CNN polls conducted by SSRS.

In a survey conducted from January 9 to January 12, 2026, 30 percent of adults in that age group said they approved of how Trump was handling his job as president, while 69 percent said they disapproved. That left him with a net approval rating (those who approve minus those who disapprove) of minus 39 among Gen Z voters.

The January poll surveyed 1,209 adult Americans recruited from a probability‑based panel. Results for the full sample carried a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

By late March, those numbers had worsened substantially.

A follow‑up CNN/SSRS poll conducted from March 26 to March 30 found Trump’s approval among 18‑ to 34‑year‑olds had fallen to just 20 percent, while disapproval increased to 80 percent, putting his net approval rating among young adults at minus 60.

That represents a significant 21‑point swing in net approval in the wrong direction since January, marking one of Trump’s sharpest demographic declines over the period.

Stevenson also reports on another troubling group that's turned against Chump:

New CNN polling conducted by SSRS shows a dramatic decline in Trump’s approval rating among Americans earning less than $50,000 a year.

In a CNN/SSRS poll conducted from January 9 to January 12, 2026, Trump’s approval among adults in households earning under $50,000 stood at 38 percent, while 60 percent disapproved of the way he was handling his job as president.

That produced a net approval rating (those who approve minus those who disapprove) of minus 22 points for this income group.

That survey was based on 1,209 adult Americans recruited from a probability-based panel. According to CNN, the margin of sampling error for total respondents was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Less than three months later, the numbers worsened substantially.

A second CNN/SSRS poll conducted from March 26 to March 30, 2026, found Trump’s approval rating among Americans earning under $50,000 had fallen to 29 percent, while disapproval had risen to 70 percent. That resulted in a net approval rating of minus 41 points.

The March poll surveyed a random national sample of 1,201 adults. Results for the full sample had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Taken together, the two surveys show a 19-point net approval swing in the wrong direction among lower-income voters over roughly 10 weeks.

Chump supporters may be less in number but they're more active in lying these days. Adam Lynch notes:

MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace blasted conservative media personalities, accusing President Donald Trump’s allies Megyn Kelly and Laura Ingraham of trying to absolve him of responsibility in his own Iran war.

Wallace set up the destruction by playing a clip from Monday’s edition of “The Ingraham Angle,” during which the Fox News host asked whether Trump was “fully briefed about the risks” of the military operation in the Persian Gulf region before launching missile strikes.

“Was he then able to take it all in and understand the complexity of this — how complex it could actually get and further possibilities of casualties or other damage, the difficulty of dealing with these people — or was he told this would be relatively quick in and out?” Ingraham asked.

But Wallace razzed that take, calling it “quite convenient.”

“Apparently, Donald Trump is never wrong. But when he is wrong, when he gets something wrong, as the MAGA newscasters are starting to worry, maybe it must be someone else’s fault,” said Wallace, adding that in the eyes of Trump’s loyal backers, the president “can’t fail.” Instead, “he can only be failed.”

Along with FOX "NEWS" and former FOX "NEWS" employees trying to make excuses for Chump, there's the White House getting creative for him. Annabella Rosciglione (DAILY BEAST) reports:

The White House posted and then rushed to delete an hour-long recording of an event with President Donald Trump that captured him lashing out at the Supreme Court after justices signaled expressed skepticism about his birthright citizenship case.

The president privately hosted a group of MAGA pastors and religious allies Wednesday for an Easter luncheon at the White House. Trump made several bonkers remarks during the event, which was never meant to be seen by the public, as the White House quickly deleted the footage from its official pages.

The footage, however, was saved online by Business Insider reporter Bryan Metzger.

While he thought the cameras weren’t rolling, the president let it rip about his true feelings about Supreme Court justices, including his own appointees, after he stormed out of oral arguments at the court earlier that day.

“Republicans, judges, and justices,” Trump began. “They always want to show that they’re independent.”

“‘I don’t care if Trump appointed me, I don’t care, if it doesn’t make any difference to me. I’m voting against him!” Trump said, visibly annoyed.

“Cause they want to show their independence, you know, stupid people,” complained Trump.

He also insulted French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he is trying and failing to get to commit to fully supporting his war with Iran.

Trump implied that Macron’s wife, Brigitte Macron, gets physical with him.

“I called up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly, and he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw,” he said, soliciting laughs from the faithful audience.

In that instance, they took down the embarrassing footage. In another instance, they tampered with footage they posted. Lesley Abravanel (OK!) reports:

The White House was busted for sloppy spin control after social media sleuths noticed they tried to cover up booing during President Donald Trump's visit to the Kennedy Center premiere of the musical Chicago.

The president and his wife, Melania (whom conspiracy theorists insisted was a body double), attended the Tuesday, March 31, performance and were loudly booed by the sparse audience.

The White House claimed unanimous applause via its official “Rapid Response 47” X account. Still, social media pounced on that claim, debunking the narrative of a purely positive reception by sharing unedited footage of the event that featured audible boos and jeers from the crowd.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

Committee Ranking Members argue that the scheme “will set the stage for more dysfunction in a federal student aid system that the Trump Administration has already made more expensive and confusing to navigate”

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) pressed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to rescind their plans to move the administration of federal student loans to the Treasury Department (Treasury), the latest move in the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED).

The lawmakers are the Ranking Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; Senate Finance Committee; and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.

“This latest illegal scheme from the Trump Administration threatens to trap student loan borrowers, students, and families in chaos and bureaucracy, all while American taxpayers are left to foot the bill for Treasury to administer programs that ED can and should administer itself,” wrote the lawmakers.

Congress recently reaffirmed on a bicameral, bipartisan basis that ED has no authority to transfer its statutory responsibilities to other agencies, stating that doing so would “create inefficiencies, result in additional costs to the American taxpayer, and cause delays.”

Contrary to that directive, ED’s most recent interagency agreement (IAA) transfers its responsibilities of managing student loans and federal student aid to Treasury, without Congressional authorization. Previous IAAs transferred ED’s management of career and technical education programs, adult education grant programs, along with dozens of programs for early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education out of ED.

“The Trump administration’s record of haphazard decision making and utter disregard for the actual issues facing students, families, and student loan borrowers suggests that this IAA will be implemented in a way that leaves borrowers with limited options and little to no guidance while increasing the number of borrowers in default and economic distress,” warned the lawmakers.

The senators argued that the first phase of the IAA is likely to worsen the student loan default crisis, because it tasks Treasury — an agency with no experience in student loan administration — with collecting on defaulted student loan debt and helping borrowers exit default. They cited the Treasury Department’s reductions in force as reason to doubt the success of the new arrangement, in addition to a pilot study where Treasury was made responsible for collections and loan rehabilitation for several thousand student loan borrowers but only successfully completed rehabilitations for eight.

Further, the senators argued that the second and third phases of the IAA — in which Treasury will be tasked with potentially managing the entire federal student loan portfolio and administering the FAFSA form — are illegal and likely to throw the financial aid system into further disarray.

“Treasury’s lack of expertise in the federal student aid system could be disastrous for the implementation of the latter phases of the IAA, as the federal student aid system is highly complex and administrative errors could endanger access to financial aid or statutory debt cancellation,” wrote the senators. “This ill-advised plan also ignores the laws of Congress.”

ED’s IAA with the Department of Labor for Career and Technical Education and Adult Education, programs which are a fraction of the size and less complex than student loan programs, have cost ED over $1 million in extra program costs and resulted in weeks-long delays in grant disbursements, harming students and schools.

“(I)t is reckless for ED to enter into another IAA with no information or clarity on the cost,” said the senators.

“The ED-Treasury IAA will set the stage for more dysfunction in a federal student aid system that the Trump Administration has already made more expensive and confusing to navigate…We call upon you to rescind these IAAs immediately,” concluded the lawmakers.

The senators asked Secretary McMahon and Secretary Bessent to provide details on the cost of transferring student loan administration to Treasury, basic information on the staff responsible for and the timing of the IAA, and how Treasury will be held accountable for poor performance in administering its new student loan responsibilities by April 15, 2026.

Senator Murray has aggressively pushed back against Secretary McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department, including through the illegal use of IAAs, and she fought to insert ironclad language in the fiscal year 2026 funding bill for the Department that would bar Secretary McMahon’s use of IAAs to dismantle the Department—but Republicans refused to include new, binding language. The final agreement did, however, make clear there is no legal authority for the Department of Education to slough off core responsibilities through these agreements.

The full text of the letter is available HERE.

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The following sites updated: