House Dems push Senate to reject Jeanine Pirro as US attorney for DC

WASHINGTON (CN) — The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee heaped pressure on Senate leadership Thursday to oppose Jeanine Pirro’s confirmation as U.S. attorney for D.C., expressing “grave concern” that she would serve as a partisan instrument of the Donald Trump administration in the capital city.

“Over the past decade, Ms. Pirro has consistently demonstrated that her loyalty lies with Donald Trump the person, not with the Constitution or the rule of law,” Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin told Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a letter, obtained exclusively by Courthouse News.

Congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm as the Senate prepares to vote on Pirro’s nomination as D.C.’s top federal prosecutor. The former Fox News host, now serving in an acting capacity, likely has enough Republican support to be confirmed.

Raskin urged Thune and Schumer to reject Trump’s “extreme and appalling” pick.

The D.C. U.S. attorney’s office is the Justice Department’s largest, handling prosecutions in the capital, including cases involving Congress, the executive branch and contempt of Congress.

Raskin argued D.C.’s top prosecutor must be “scrupulously nonpartisan” and said Pirro fails that standard.

Throughout her confirmation process, Pirro has faced criticism for amplifying Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims and defending him after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Raskin noted she supported the stolen election theory “vigorously and frequently.”

A former Fox News host, Pirro was named in two 2021 defamation suits by voting machine manufacturers alleging the network spread misinformation about election fraud. Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 for nearly $800 million.

And while Pirro initially condemned rioters who breached the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, as a nominee, she has taken a cautious stance on Trump’s January decision to issue sweeping pardons for roughly 1,600 people convicted of crimes related to Jan. 6.

In a recent Senate questionnaire earlier this month, Pirro refused to condemn Trump’s pardons and questioned the scope of his clemency offer. She told lawmakers she was “not aware” that Trump had pardoned Capitol rioters who assaulted law enforcement, despite over 600 Jan. 6 defendants being charged with such offenses at the time of the broad pardon.

“Ms. Pirro’s brazen denial of these publicly available and widely reported cases is truly chilling,” Raskin told Senate leadership.

The U.S. attorney nominee also made public comments critical of the Justice Department’s prosecution of Capitol rioters, suggesting they had been targeted for their political beliefs. During a January episode of her WABC show, Pirro endorsed the idea that federal prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 cases should face criminal charges themselves.

Pirro has said that she does not recall that comment. “Anyone who commits a crime that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt should be prosecuted,” she told lawmakers in her Senate questionnaire.

Raskin pointed out that Trump’s first nominee for the U.S. attorney position in D.C., conservative legal activist Ed Martin, was scuttled thanks to his own take on the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

The Maryland Democrat also criticized Pirro’s partisan support for Trump during his first term in office, citing reports that she pushed for investigations into political opponents like Hillary Clinton while seeking a job as Trump’s deputy attorney general. He also pointed to claims she urged a “cleansing” of the FBI and Justice Department.

Raskin warned Thune and Schumer that confirming Pirro would “further damage” the D.C. federal prosecutor’s office, where staff are already “demoralized and intimidated” by threats of retaliation, demotions and firings.

“It is a part of a sweeping effort by President Trump to install loyalists in the nation’s premier and most powerful law enforcement agency,” wrote Raskin.

Several high-ranking Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Solicitor General Dean Sauer, have all previously defended the president in court. The Senate this week confirmed Emil Bove, a former Justice Department official and another one-time personal lawyer to Trump, to a lifetime position as a federal appellate judge.

Raskin called on the Senate to avoid what he said would be “untold damage” caused by Pirro’s appointment as U.S. attorney for D.C.

“As senators charged with the responsibility of evaluating and confirming President Trump’s nominees to United States Attorney’s Offices, surely you must reject this extreme and appalling nomination,” he told Thune and Schumer.

A spokesperson for Thune’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Schumer’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, a warning from a top House Democrat may not derail Pirro’s path to confirmation. She cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on a party-line vote, with backing from North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, the one possible GOP holdout.

Tillis previously blocked Trump’s first pick, Martin, over his criticism of Jan. 6 prosecutions. However, Tillis has said that Pirro’s 2021 condemnation of the rioters satisfied his concerns and has signaled his support for her nomination for weeks.

In May, Trump tapped Pirro, formerly a prosecutor and judge in Westchester County, New York, to replace Martin as his nominee for U.S. attorney for D.C.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Senate had yet to schedule Pirro’s final confirmation vote. The upper chamber is gearing up to begin its monthlong August recess this week, though Thune has toyed around with the idea of keeping the Senate in session after Trump urged him to confirm as many White House nominees as possible.

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