Trump Nominates Former Fox News Host Pirro as Top DC Prosecutor

President Donald Trump has officially nominated former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to serve as Washington’s top prosecutor, in his second attempt this year to install a leader for the nation’s largest US attorney’s office.

Pirro, who is currently leading the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia in an interim capacity, was most recently a host on Fox News’ weekly program “The Five.”

She was one of the Fox News hosts named in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for making false statements about voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle the voting machine company’s claims.

Before joining Fox, she hosted the weekday courtroom television program “Judge Jeanine Pirro.” She ran for New York attorney general as a Republican in 2006, but lost to Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Earlier in her career, she worked as a county court judge and district attorney in New York’s Westchester County.

Since taking the helm of the office last month, Pirro has kept a largely lower profile than her predecessor, Ed Martin, a former “Stop the Steal” organizer who became known for his office-wide missives announcing priority changes, lambasting leakers, and comparing Capitol riot prosecutions to Japanese internment.

Under her leadership, the DC US attorney’s office announced criminal charges against the man accused of murdering two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last month. On Wednesday, her office announced the seizure of more than $225 million in cryptocurrency as part of an alleged investment fraud scheme.

The White House formally submitted her nomination on June 16, according to congressional records.

President Donald Trump’s decision to tap Pirro comes after his first choice for the seat, Martin, failed to secure enough support in the Senate to move forward.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary Committee considering the nomination, came out against Martin over his support for participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

Martin defended Jan. 6 participants in court, called them “patriots”, and oversaw the dismissal of criminal charges against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants after Trump pardoned them.

Martin now serves as the pardon attorney and leader of a Justice Department working group on government weaponization.

Pirro likely faces a smoother path through the Senate to confirmation. After Trump announced she would become the interim US attorney in DC, Tillis wrote on social media that Pirro “has had a long and storied career as a prosecutor” is “a great choice” by Trump.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) posted on the social media platform X on June 17 that he met with Pirro and the two “talked about her qualifications + fighting crime+ keeping ppl safe.”