Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and says she is undergoing treatment, including surgery a few weeks ago. Bondi, 60, said she is continuing to work even as she faces the illness.
The diagnosis adds a personal turn to a week already stacked with public responsibilities. Bondi is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Friday over her handling of the Epstein files, a politically charged matter that has drawn bipartisan criticism of both her and President Donald Trump over the Justice Department’s release of records, with some Democratic lawmakers arguing that important files were withheld from the public.
Bondi told CBS about the cancer diagnosis and the treatment she has been receiving. It is not clear what stage of cancer she has. Thyroid cancer has a five-year survival rate of over 98%, and the Cleveland Clinic says most forms are treatable and permanently curable. That does not make the diagnosis trivial, but it does help explain why Bondi has been able to stay on the job while undergoing care.
Her continued public role also marks a shift in how she is being used by the White House. Bondi will join the administration’s new advisory council on artificial intelligence, the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the first news of work beyond the Justice Department since she left that post at the beginning of April. Trump created PCAST by executive order in January 2025, saying he wanted to unite the brightest minds from academia, industry and government to guide the nation through a critical moment and set a path for American leadership in science and technology. The first members of the council were not announced until March 2026, when the panel was shown to include Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Jensen Huang.
The White House move puts Bondi in a separate lane from the role that made her a central figure in Washington politics. She was removed from her job as the nation’s top law enforcement officer last month, and later told people she was excited to enter the private sector. Instead, she is now staying close to the administration, even while facing treatment for cancer and preparing for an Oversight Committee hearing on the Epstein files.
Supporters have framed that as a sign of grit. Katie Miller posted on social media that Bondi has been quietly kicking cancer’s ass over the last few weeks and said she has a heart of gold. Vice President JD Vance said Bondi has been an enormously valuable asset to the president’s team and said he was thrilled for her and for the administration that she would remain involved on major issues. The personal praise, the new advisory role and the looming testimony together show a former cabinet official still deeply embedded in the White House orbit, even as she navigates a serious health issue that has not been publicly detailed beyond the diagnosis itself.
