Pam Bondi’s portrait was photographed in a DOJ trash can after her firing, and the DOJ’s rebuttal photo may have accidentally made things worse

A major news network is standing by its report about a portrait of Pam Bondi, the recently fired Attorney General, found in a trash can inside a federal office. The Justice Department quickly called the story “fake news,” which sparked a new controversy around Bondi’s departure.

MS NOW reporter Ken Dilanian obtained a photograph showing Bondi’s official portrait sitting in a garbage bin, reportedly taken inside the Department of Justice offices just one day after President Trump removed her from her position. The network told Mediaite that it “stands by its reporting.” The image was published on the network’s website and later featured in an on-air segment.

MS NOW’s report included comments from current and former DOJ officials, who said the portrait’s fate was a “reflection of how deeply unpopular Bondi was” within the department. Throughout her time in office, thousands of officials reportedly left the department, and dozens more were pushed out rather than follow her directives.

The DOJ’s attempt to disprove the story may have backfired

According to Mediaite, the Justice Department’s rapid response team pushed back by posting a screenshot of Dilanian’s tweet with “fake news” stamped on it, alongside a photo of a different Bondi portrait still hanging on a wall, which they labeled “real news.” However, the portrait in Dilanian’s photo appears visibly different from the one in the DOJ’s rebuttal image. 

The discarded portrait lacks a mounting board, suggesting it could be a different print or an earlier version. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon also called Dilanian’s report “extremely tacky.” The DOJ has been at the center of other controversies too, including when it unfurled a large Trump banner inside its building after Trump had previously sued the department for $230 million.

Much of the bad feeling toward Bondi traces back to an incident early in her tenure. Officials privately expressed frustration after Bondi entered a secure area in the Justice Department’s national security division and noticed that portraits of President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Merrick Garland were still on display after President Trump’s inauguration. 

She responded by demoting Devin DeBacker, a widely respected career official, over the oversight. Bondi later spoke publicly about the incident, saying she personally removed the portraits herself. “I went up on the seventh floor, which is the national security division. The entire floor is a SCIF, so no one can get in there,” she explained. 

“So I was able to get the code, open the door, and I look on the wall and see President Biden, Kamala Harris, and Merrick Garland’s paintings still hanging.” She added, “I personally took all three photos down. 

I put them in front of someone who said to me, ‘Oh well, maintenance is really slow here.’ I said, ‘Well it took me about 30 seconds to get them off the wall.'” What Bondi did not mention publicly was the demotion of DeBacker, who faced consequences over the matter.

That incident left a lasting mark on many inside the department. A former national security division official, still troubled by DeBacker’s removal, was quoted as saying, “They better take her picture down” – a comment that now seems to line up closely with the photo of Bondi’s portrait in the trash. 

The DOJ has also drawn criticism on other fronts, such as using national security claims to bypass environmental laws to allow Gulf drilling expansion, a move experts have widely criticized. Many senior career officials who had served during President Trump’s first term without any issues found themselves at odds with Bondi’s leadership. 

Her strong stance on removing portraits of previous administration figures, which she framed as proof of institutional disloyalty, now stands in sharp contrast to the fate of her own portrait. The network’s continued defense of its report, despite the DOJ’s pushback, keeps the story alive and reflects the deep divisions that defined Bondi’s time as Attorney General.