Friday, July 11, 2025

Small Pleasures

That these horrible people have to spend time with each other.

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios.

Why it matters: The dispute erupted Wednesday amid the fallout of the administration walking back its claims about Epstein by determining the convicted sex offender didn't have a celebrity "client list," and that he wasn't murdered in his New York City prison cell in 2019.

Bongino didn't come to work Friday, leading some insiders to believe he had quit. But administration officials say he's still on the job, even as the internal tension over the Epstein case continues.