President Trump named Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as DC’s next interim US Attorney yesterday, following the defenestration of Ed Martin, who lacked GOP support in the Senate to get the job permanently.
She worked as a district attorney and a judge before an unsuccessful pursuit of higher office and a much more successful career in media. Pirro, who was appointed as an assistant district attorney in New York’s Westchester County in the mid-’70s, was elected as a county judge in 1990. She rode the bench for a few years, then became the county’s first female DA and developed a reputation for tackling sexual abuse as well as seeking media attention. She planned to challenge Hillary Clinton in the 2006 election for US Senator from New York, but that run never really got off the ground. A subsequent run for attorney general ended in a loss; during the campaign it emerged that she had asked Bernard Kerik, once the New York City police commissioner, to bug her now ex-husband’s yacht. She moved into television, where her full-throated support of Trump, a longtime friend, later fueled a career renaissance.
Trump considered her for a federal job before: She reportedly interviewed to be deputy attorney general in 2017. Trump “rarely misses” her show, the New York Times reported at the time. She’s known for speaking quickly (most of the time) and forcefully advocating for Trump. Trump pardoned her ex-husband, Albert Pirro, at the end of his first term.
Her on-air pronouncements have gotten her into hot water in the past: Fox suspended Pirro in 2019 after she questioned whether US Representative Ilhan Omar was following “Sharia law” because she wore a hijab. Trump, then in his first term as President, campaigned for her return.
Her Trump advocacy has caused other headaches for Fox News: Pirro is a defendant in Smartmatic’s defamation case against the network. She was “central” to a similar case filed by Dominion Voting Systems, NPR reported in 2022. A Fox News producer warned against putting Pirro on the air during Trump’s ill-fated campaign to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, saying she was “pulling conspiracy theories from dark corners of the Web,” as NPR characterized the remarks. Fox settled Dominion’s suit in 2023 by agreeing to pay $787.5 million. The Smartmatic case could go to trial this fall.
She drives as quickly as she speaks: In 2017, Pirro got a ticket for driving 119 miles per hour in a 65 MPH zone. Her first car was a Triumph TR6, which is not particularly fast by modern standards but had terrific styling and a pretty good motor. If she used that car to challenge this reporter in a drag race with his 1979 MG Midget, she would almost certainly smoke him.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
