Senate advances Pirro as US attorney for DC after false start

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to advance Jeanine Pirro’s nomination as U.S. attorney for D.C., moving the former Fox News host and New York state prosecutor one step closer to final confirmation.

The 12-10 committee vote was Senate Republicans’ second attempt to get Pirro’s nomination through the Judiciary Committee, following last week’s partisan breakdown when Democrats walked out of a panel meeting over another of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.

The White House tapped Pirro in May to become D.C.’s top federal prosecutor, replacing Ed Martin, the former acting U.S. attorney for D.C. whose nomination for the full-time role failed to capture enough Republican support to pass the Senate.

Republicans have positioned the former Westchester Country, New York, prosecutor and Fox News personality as well-qualified to lead the D.C. federal prosecutor’s office — a job she’s already done for months on an interim basis. But Democrats have expressed concern with Pirro’s loyalty to Trump and questioned her stance on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“She will prioritize President Trump’s MAGA agenda, not the rule of law and the Constitution,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said during Thursday’s business meeting in the Judiciary Committee. “Trump is already using the Justice Department to protect his allies and go after his enemies, and Ms. Pirro will be a willing accomplice in weaponizing the justice system.”

Still, Durbin gave Pirro credit for agreeing to meet with him about her nomination and for answering all his “predilections” about her appointment. He added that she had “many positive things in her background” and while he could not support her nomination, he would try to work with Pirro if she were confirmed.

Pirro, like most U.S. attorney nominees, did not testify before the Judiciary Committee. But she did answer a written questionnaire earlier this month in which senators pressed her on her stance on the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Though Pirro has previously condemned rioters who breached the Capitol to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory, she took a more cautious stance in her answers to Senate lawmakers about Trump’s move to pardon more than 1,500 of them.

She wrote that she was not aware that the president had granted “full and unconditional” pardons to rioters who assaulted law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Roughly 608 such Capitol riot defendants charged with crimes related to violence against law enforcement were among those covered by the president’s sweeping pardon.

The debate on Pirro’s nomination was repeatedly interrupted Thursday by protesters who urged the Senate not to approve her. A half dozen demonstrators wearing shirts featuring the D.C. flag, some carrying banners which read “Reject Pirro,” were removed from the Judiciary Committee chamber by U.S. Capitol Police.

“So sorry to interrupt, but as D.C. residents we have no other way to say this,” one protester told lawmakers before he was escorted out of the meeting room. “We reject Jeanine Pirro.”

The capital city, since it is not a state, has no voting representation in Congress. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton is D.C.’s only nonvoting delegate on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee also used Thursday’s meeting as an opportunity to debrief on last week’s partisan blow-up over Emil Bove’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Democrats left that meeting in protest after panel chairman Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley cut off debate and forced a vote on the nominee.

Democrats argued at the time that Grassley had violated several committee rules. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker called the move a “sham” and accused Republicans of “supplicating themselves” to the Trump administration on Bove’s nomination.

But tensions had apparently cooled somewhat this week, as Grassley explained that his move to halt debate on Bove was due in large part to scheduling conflicts in the Senate. He also defended his conduct by pointing out that the committee chairman is permitted to override panel rules with a vote.

Still, Grassley told his colleagues that he didn’t intend to make a habit of silencing debate on nominees, unless “consideration is being unfairly obstructed.”

“We’ve heard each other’s concerns, and I believe we both agree that we want the committee to run well — better than last week,” the top Judiciary Republican said. “I think we can work together to make sure this happens.”

Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, said he appreciated Grassley’s comments and that he hoped both sides would respect the Judiciary Committee’s “long tradition of robust debate,” holding it up as an important part of the panel’s charge of approving White House judicial nominees.

But Booker wasn’t completely satisfied with Grassley’s explanation, arguing that the chairman had not in fact held a vote on his move to override the committee’s debate rules last week. And he called on Republicans to do away with what he called a “climate of fear and intimidation” that he said stymied debate on nominees.

“We’ve created a climate in this country that is deepening and deepening — a reflexive tribalism where people aren’t interested in listening to the facts anymore,” Booker said.

Bove, a top Justice Department official and former member of Trump’s personal legal team, was voted out of the Judiciary Committee last week. The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote on his nomination Thursday afternoon, teeing him up for final confirmation in the coming days.

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