The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm former Fox News host and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for Washington DC.
The vote was along party lines, 50-45, with Senators Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Tim Scott, R-S.C., Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., not voting.
Pirro had been serving as interim U.S. attorney for DC since May, after Trump appointed her to replace conservative activist Ed Martin as the top federal prosecutor in Washington.
In a Truth Social post announcing Pirro’s appointment, Trump lauded the former prosecutor as a “powerful crusader for victims of crime” and “incredibly well qualified for the position.”
Pirro has been among the most prominent and fiercest allies of Trump, previously using her platform as a host of two Fox News programs to push conspiracy theories about voting in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 election loss. She was cited in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems for he role spreading the election disinformation. Fox News ultimately reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion in 2023.
Pirro previously served as an assistant district attorney for Westchester County, New York, ultimately becoming the first woman elected to serve as the Westchester County District Attorney. During her tenure, Pirro started the first domestic violence unit in a prosecutor’s office, an accomplishment Trump cited in his decision to appoint her as a U.S. attorney.
Following her judicial career, Pirro in 2005 launched an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for Senate in New York, aiming to challenge then incumbent Hillary Clinton. Soon after, she launched a campaign for New York attorney general, but the effort was ultimately derailed by a federal probe over a plot by Pirro to record her then-husband Albert Pirro, who she suspected was having an affair.
Pirro’s confirmation continues a trend of Trump rewarding supportive Fox News hosts with high-profile appointments, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy among the former Fox News personnel working in Trump’s administration.
Democrats had been trying to delay votes on Trump’s nominees by forcing additional procedural votes on each one, prompting backlash Saturday afternoon by Trump, with the president specifically targeting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
“Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!” Trump said in a Truth Social post this afternoon urging Republicans not to offer Democrats any concessions in order to hasten the pace of confirmations.
Despite that message, Senate Republicans were able to reach an agreement with Democrats Saturday evening, teeing up votes on a large batch of Trump’s nominees ahead of a four-week August recess.
Senate Republicans have indicated that they plan to consider rule changes once they return in September that would make the process of confirming nominees move faster, an effort Democrats will likely oppose.
Brennan Leach and Frank Thorp V contributed.
