Senate Confirms Election Denying Fox Host as DC US Attorney
Senate Republicans were undeterred by former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro’s election denialism. They confirmed her nomination to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on Saturday night by a 50-45 vote.
After agreeing with a guest on her radio show earlier this year that January 6 prosecutors should face criminal charges, Pirro will now manage many of them.
President Donald Trump named Pirro the acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. in May. Before that, she had spent more than a decade as a Fox News host and pundit.
Pirro was one of the network’s loudest 2020 election conspiracy cheerleaders even after her own producers corrected her, as detailed in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit that Fox ultimately settled for $787 million.
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) urged Pirro rejection in a letter to Senate leaders, saying she wouldn’t merely go along with Trump’s weaponization of federal law enforcement, but encourage it.
“Ms. Pirro has made clear that her personal loyalty to Donald Trump overrides whatever commitment she has to the Constitution, the rule of law, the truth, and the facts,” Raskin wrote. “During President Trump’s first term, Ms. Pirro had urged President Trump to pursue his political opponents, including Hillary Clinton.”
As the final vote counts showed Trump losing in 2020, Pirro argued baselessly that the tally shift was evidence of a conspiracy. “The Dominion Software System has been tagged as one allegedly capable of flipping votes,” Pirro claimed on air.
A week later, Pirro repeated those false allegations in a monologue.
In her responses to Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaires, Pirro said she was unaware that Trump gave full pardons to January 6 rioters convicted of assaulting police officers, when in fact around 600 Jan. 6 defendants were charged with assaulting or obstructing law enforcement.
Prior to her punditry work, Pirro worked in law enforcement for decades as an assistant district attorney, district attorney and judge in New York.
Pirro’s opponents had hoped Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) would have voted against her, given her election denialism. Tillis opposed Trump’s first pick for the office, Ed Martin, for defending the January 6 attacks on the Capitol. But Tillis voted to advance Pirro’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and again for it on the floor.
Trump has filled his second administration with Fox News alumni. According to a Newsweek tally, Pirro is the 23rd current or former Fox News host nominated by Trump this year.