The Fox News pipeline into the Trump administration continues to flow, with Senate Republicans confirming TV personality Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Saturday before leaving town for their August recess.
“The confirmation of Jeanine Pirro is yet another rubber stamp on a nominee who will be beholden to Trump, not the American people,” said People For the American Way President Svante Myrick. He continued:
A Fox News host who has repeatedly denied election results and attacked January 6 prosecutors is not the caliber of person we require in a US Attorney. This lawless president is yet again stacking a vital federal position with a collaborator. We condemn this confirmation in the strongest terms. The American people will remember this moment.
Pirro’s ridiculously bombastic performances as a Trump booster made her a frequent target of ridicule on Saturday Night Live. During Trump’s first term, Pirro published a book titled “Liars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy,” which Trump and his family members promoted on social media.
Pirro’s promotion of bogus claims about the 2020 election was cited in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox, which the company settled for more than $787 million. She was also named in a libel suit filed by voting technology company Smartmatic.
Pirro was not President Donald Trump’s first choice for the key position. That was MAGA activist Ed Martin, whose extremist record, advocacy for Jan. 6 insurrectionists, and abusiveperformance as an interim U.S. attorney generated enough bipartisan opposition to prevent his confirmation. Trump gave Martin another influential Justice Department position that did not require Senate confirmation.
Senate Republicans apparently didn’t have the stomach to say no to Trump a second time. Senate Democrats denounced Pirro’s confirmation. Sen. Richard Durbin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement,
President Trump has been using the Justice Department to protect his allies and go after his enemies, and Ms. Pirro has proven to be a willing accomplice in weaponizing the justice system. She is not fit to be the U.S. attorney for our nation’s capital, and I believe it’s a grave mistake my Republican colleagues voted to confirm her.
Just before leaving the White House after his 2020 defeat, Trump pardoned Albert Pirro, Jr., his former lawyer and Pirro’s ex-husband, who had been convicted on tax evasion and conspiracy charges 20 years earlier.
