ATF chief legal counsel fired by Bondi in latest Justice Department shakeup

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms‘ (ATF) chief legal counsel was fired by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, the former ATF official confirmed on social media. 

“Earlier today, I was served official notice from the Attorney General of the United States that I was being removed from my position as the Chief Counsel of ATF and my employment with the Department of Justice terminated,” Pamela Hicks posted on her LinkedIn page on Thursday, confirming the termination. 

Hicks had served as ATF’s chief counsel since 2021 under the Biden administration, and served as deputy chief counsel for ATF under President Donald Trump’s first administration. She spent 23 years overall as an attorney within the Department of Justice (DOJ), she posted to LinkedIn. 

“Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure,” Hicks continued in her LinkedIn post. “I thank my colleagues for their friendship and partnership over the years.” 

AG BONDI SAYS VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL STUDENT PROTESTERS IN US ON VISAS ‘NEED TO BE KICKED OUT’

A source familiar with the termination said Hicks was escorted out of the ATF building upon her termination. 

“ATF respects the rights of all our employees,” ATF told Fox News Digital when asked about Hicks’ termination. “As a general policy, ATF does not comment on personnel matters, including but not limited to, specific personnel issues, actions, or the existence of ongoing investigations.”

The firing comes after a handful of senior DOJ officials have quit or been fired in recent days. At least seven federal prosecutors quit in February over the Trump DOJ ordering the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams be dropped, while Trump on Tuesday ordered the DOJ to “clean house” of all Biden-era U.S. attorneys. 

“Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys. We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence,” Trump wrote. “America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System – THAT BEGINS TODAY!” Trump posted to Truth Social. 

VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS

Bondi, who was confirmed as the nation’s 87th attorney general on Feb. 5, joined the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, D.C., on Thursday, where she remarked that the sheer “volume” of political weaponization in the DOJ left over from the Biden administration concerned her. 

“What concerned me the most? It’s the volume of how bad it was, and it still is,” she said while speaking with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on a live episode of his podcast, “Verdict.” “We’re working on it. It’s day by day by day, but we’ve got a team of great people. And on day one, I issued 14 executive orders. And number one is the weaponization ends. And it ends now. And that’s what we did.” 

TRUMP ORDERS ALL BIDEN-ERA US ATTORNEYS TO BE FIRED: ‘WE MUST CLEAN HOUSE IMMEDIATELY’

Bondi added that the state of the DOJ was “worse” than she expected. 

“Worse meaning, that department had completely lost its mission of fighting violent crime,” she said of the DOJ. “Look what they did to President Trump. Look at the weaponization.” 

ATF was transferred from the Department of Treasury to the Department of Justice in 2003, following the Homeland Security Act mandating that the law enforcement agency join the DOJ amid the nation’s reshuffling of the federal government to better combat terrorism following 9/11.