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Donald Trump is appointing Fox News host and former New York prosecutor Jeanine Pirro to serve as interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., after the president announced earlier Thursday he would be pulling his support for the full nomination of Ed Martin, who currently holds the role.
“Jeanine is incredibly well qualified for this position, and is considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday evening. “She is in a class by herself.”
The president touted Pirro’s time as Westchester County District Attorney and work establishing the first domestic violence unit in a prosecutor’s office, calling her a “powerful crusader for victims of crime.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
“Jeanine Pirro has been a wonderful addition to The Five over the last three years and a longtime beloved host across FOX News Media who contributed greatly to our success throughout her 14-year tenure,” a FOX News Media spokesperson told The Independent in a statement. “We wish her all the best in her new role in Washington.”
Since Trump took office, Pirro has steadfastly defended the administration.
She has voiced her support for the invocation of the wartime Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport alleged gang members.
In a March segment, she said she was “not disturbed” by migrants, including asylum seekers, being deported before they got full hearings in a court, adding, “The only due process I believe in is the legal way to enter this country.”
Current staffers who spoke with The Independent noted that when the president was initially tapping a slew of Fox News personalities to fill out his administration – Pirro now makes 23 former network employees hired for Trump’s second term – she had openly wondered why her name wasn’t called.
“Judge Jeanine wasn’t too thrilled that she didn’t get picked because she’s been so loyal,” one network employee noted. Indeed, as the staffers pointed out, “her loyalty to Trump has been unwavering” since he first entered politics as she was one of the first Fox News hosts who openly embraced his 2016 presidential run.
Additionally, while Pirro tends to be in a generally good mood behind the scenes, two sources said that the now-former Fox News host was “in a great mood” these past 48 hours. Notably, while Pirro hosted The Five on Wednesday, she was absent for Thursday’s broadcast and was replaced by Fox News commentator Johnny Joey Jones.
Meanwhile, a number of former network staffers reached out to The Independent to weigh in on the president hiring the longtime pro-Trump Fox host as a US attorney for the District of Columbia.
“What a god-d*mned joke,” one former Fox producer texted immediately after Pirro’s appointment was announced.
Another ex-Fox News producer jokingly wondered why so many network personalities were jumping ship to the Trump administration rather than just sticking it out with the conservative cable giant.
“I don’t even understand why any of the Fox Newsers that have accepted jobs in the administration would even want them! Don’t they realize they have it made already?” the former staffer snarked. “Grifting is the easiest job in the world, and being DC attorney or Def Sec is actually hard!”
“But yeah, Jeanine’s super qualified,” they added. “She’ll do great.”
Pirro was among the top Fox News talent who “endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election,” media executive Rupert Murdoch said during a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems against the news channel, which was later settled in 2023 for $787 million.
Producers for Pirro reportedly warned network executives one of the former prosecutor’s election-time segments was “rife w[ith] conspiracy theories and bs and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television.”
Before the January 6 attack, Pirro compared efforts to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election to the American Revolutionary War, wondering if there was anyone in Congress “willing to battle for the America that those soldiers fought for, the one that you and I believe in.” (She later condemned the storming of the Capitol.)
Trump said earlier Thursday he would’ve liked to see Martin get nominated, but pulled his nomination as Republican senators like North Carolina’s Thom Tillis announced they wouldn’t back the conservative attorney.
“To me, it was disappointing. I’ll be honest. I have to be straight. I was disappointed, a lot of people were disappointed, but that’s the way it works sometimes,” Trump said.
Martin reportedly lost support over failing to originally disclose appearances on Russian state media and for his stances on the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which has included ordering the firings of lawyers who brought January 6 charges and pushing for reduced sentences for those convicted in the riot.
Martin, a conservative attorney who backed Trump’s Stop the Steal movement, falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, was also physically present on the larger Capitol grounds during the insurrection.
During his brief stint as interim U.S. attorney, Martin threatened to investigate Democrats, academic institutions, and some critics of billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk.
