Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host and judge, has been confirmed by the US Senate as the District Attorney for Washington DC. Photo / Getty Images
The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in a 50-45 vote along party lines.
The 74-year-old Trump loyalist previously served as a judge and prosecutor in Westchester County, New York, and has been interim US Attorney since May.
President Donald Trump withdrew his first choice, Ed Martin, a right-wing podcaster and “Stop the Steal” organiser with a history of controversial statements, after his nomination faltered over his past advocacy for the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot defendants charged with assaulting police officers.
Pirro was one of the last nominees confirmed during a rare Saturday (yesterday NZT) session before senators headed home for the rest of the month.
Trump pressured Republican senators to remain in Washington and confirm a backlog of nominees.
Republicans have accused Democrats of obstruction for forcing time-consuming votes to confirm the President’s picks, rather than allowing some of them to be confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent, as was common under previous administrations.
Republicans in the majority spent days negotiating with Democrats to allow the Senate to confirm more nominees before senators left town, but no deal came together.
“Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country,” Trump wrote on social media.
“In a fit of rage, Trump threw in the towel, sent Republicans home and was unable to do the basic work of negotiating,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (Democrat-New York) told reporters.
Pirro is one of a number of Fox hosts that Trump has recruited for the administration and fits the mould of many of his appointees: combative, camera-ready, and loyal enough to have sought to discredit the results of the 2020 election that he lost, the Washington Post reported previously.
In the days leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Pirro had cast doubt on the credibility of Joe Biden’s election victory in statements that aired on Fox.
After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, however, she walked back those comments, instead calling the attack “deplorable, reprehensible, outright criminal”.
Pirro’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were included in the US$2.1 billion ($3.5b) defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, which led the broadcaster to settle the case for US$787.5 million in 2023.
She is also a defendant in a similar defamation lawsuit by voting software maker Smartmatic. That case is pending.
In a written response to senators’ questions ahead of her confirmation that was obtained by the Washington Post, Pirro declined to offer thoughts on whether those convicted in the January 6 riot cases should have been pardoned.
She sidestepped several other questions, including whether there would ever be a legal basis for someone from the executive branch of government to defy a federal court order.
Pirro’s confirmation to one of the nation’s highest-profile prosecutor’s offices was met with mixed reactions.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, described her record on issues including the January 6 riot, election denialism, and Trump’s immigration policies as “deeply troubling”.
“President Trump has been using the Justice Department to protect his allies and go after his enemies, and Ms Pirro has proven to be a willing accomplice in weaponizing the justice system,” Durbin said in a statement.
“She is not fit to be the US Attorney for our nation’s capital, and I believe it’s a grave mistake my Republican colleagues voted to confirm her.”
“She is simply a loyal political acolyte and sycophant of the President,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said in a floor speech ahead of the confirmation vote.
Attorney-General Pam Bondi called Pirro “a warrior for law and order” in a post on X. The DC Police Union congratulated Pirro and said it looked forward to working with her “to hold criminals accountable and reduce crime”. Pirro thanked the union in response and promised to work with police to “clean up DC”.
Deadlines are looming for dozens of Trump loyalists handpicked as interim US Attorneys, whose 120-day terms are set to expire in the coming months.
The Justice Department last month deployed a complex procedural manoeuvre to keep Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer for Trump, as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor, in a playbook it has used to extend the tenures of other polarising prosecutors that bypasses the Senate’s role in confirming official nominees for the job.
During Pirro’s time as interim US Attorney, she instituted a policy of scrutinising the immigration status of all criminal defendants in the district, as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations.
She will also oversee a portfolio of major cases, including the shooting deaths of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a couple who had just left a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum. Pirro said her office intends to investigate the killings as an act of terrorism and a hate crime.
For decades, Trump and Pirro have fraternised in the same Republican circles in New York. On her Saturday Fox News show, Justice With Judge Jeanine, Pirro delivered strident defences of the President during his first term. In 2018, Pirro published a book titled Liars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.
Pirro’s former husband, Albert Pirro, served as Trump’s real estate lawyers before being convicted of federal tax evasion in 2000 when she was district attorney.
He was sentenced to 29 months and was released from federal custody in 2002, court records show. Trump pardoned him in 2021, during his first term.
In 2006, Pirro was investigated by federal prosecutors for seeking to bug the family’s boat to determine whether her husband was having an affair.
Pirro called the investigation a “political witch hunt and smear campaign”, and said her marital discord was not the business of the prosecutors. No charges were filed.
In a statement on her confirmation, Pirro said: “The confidence placed in me by the President and affirmed by the Senate will not be in vain. I am committed to ensuring that the nation’s capital once again reflects the quality, safety, and promise of the citizens and our great country.”