Senate signals support for Jeanine Pirro as top DC prosecutor

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they’re satisfied with President Donald Trump’s move to select Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. after his first nominee for the posting failed to capture the support of a key GOP holdout.

It’s a climate that could clear a path for the former Fox News host’s future confirmation for a job as the capital city’s top federal prosecutor, should the White House formally tap her for the position on a permanent basis.

Pirro is set to join the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. following the collapse of Ed Martin’s candidacy in the Senate. Trump announced last week that he would withdraw Martin, currently serving out his last few days as interim U.S. attorney for the capital, from consideration after it became clear that his controversial nomination would not survive a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The president later announced that Pirro, herself a former prosecutor and judge in New York, would take over as D.C.’s top prosecutor. She has not yet been nominated for the role full-time — instead, she will serve a 120-day term as interim U.S. attorney, giving the White House time to make a formal appointment that must be confirmed by the Senate.

Still, the former co-host of Fox News’ The Five has received a much warmer welcome from lawmakers than Martin, including from the Republican senator who doomed her predecessor’s nomination.

“I think she’s fine,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told Courthouse News Tuesday when asked about Pirro. “If you go back and look at her statement on Jan. 6 — that’s what I needed in a D.C. U.S. attorney.”

Tillis, a crucial holdout on Martin’s nomination as D.C.’s federal prosecutor, had based his opposition on the Missouri lawyer’s stance on rioters who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The senator told reporters last week that he thought that Martin had been too focused on what the nominee has framed as the over-prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters, which clashed with his own views that anyone who breached the Capitol and threatened members of Congress should be fined and face jail time.

Pirro, by contrast, offered a forceful rebuke of Jan. 6 rioters in the days after they stormed the Capitol in 2021. Speaking on Fox News, she called the attempt to halt President Joe Biden’s election victory “deplorable, reprehensible and criminal.”

But Pirro also has a history of pushing claims of voter fraud related to the 2020 election — issues which were central to efforts to reverse their results, such as the Capitol riot. As a Fox News host, she made false claims about voting machine fraud and was the defendant in a defamation case filed by voting machine company Smartmatic. She was also named in Dominion Voting Systems’ separate suit against Fox, which the network settled for nearly $800 million.

Asked on Tuesday whether he would vote for Pirro in the Judiciary Committee should she be nominated as D.C.’s permanent U.S. attorney, Tillis said he would.

Other Republicans were similarly optimistic.

“Good choice,” Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said of Pirro’s appointment. He didn’t commit to voting for her should she be formally nominated — but was clear that it wasn’t because of any reservations he had about her candidacy.

“I’m not going to give anyone a blank check,” he told Courthouse News. “If you’re asking me if I think she’s qualified, the answer is yes. Don’t you run an article saying that I’ve got concerns about her.”

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who was an avid Martin supporter, deferred to Trump on his decision to select Pirro for the role. He had a similar response last week when asked about the president’s move to withdraw Martin’s nomination.

But Hawley signaled that he’d be open to voting for Pirro if she were formally nominated. “I can’t imagine I wouldn’t,” he told Courthouse News. “She has been a federal prosecutor … but I defer to the president on that.”

Democrats, meanwhile, have sounded the alarm about Trump’s move to appoint a successive interim U.S. attorney for D.C., a move they say could invite a legal battle.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a post on X last week that Pirro’s ascent is an “untested and unprecedented use of the interim appointment authority” and argued that it undermined the Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent.

Democrats “will be looking into this,” he added.

Federal law says that the president may appoint an interim U.S. attorney to a vacant role for a period of 120 days. Martin’s tenure as D.C.’s temporary prosecutor is set to expire May 20 — without a permanent candidate for the role, statute holds that the U.S. District Court for D.C. can appoint an acting U.S. attorney until the vacancy is filled. Pirro’s appointment appears to sidestep that process.

Nevertheless, Martin said Tuesday during a news conference at the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office that he was looking forward to Pirro taking over his position, adding that she would bring “passion and intelligence and her real-world experience” to the job.

The Trump administration has said that Martin will take on another role in the Justice Department as an associate deputy attorney general and director of the agency’s “weaponization working group.” He will also serve as the department’s pardon attorney, the president said last week.

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