In a narrow 50-45 vote on Saturday, the U.S. Senate confirmed former Fox News host and television judge Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, solidifying another high-profile Trump ally’s entry into government. Pirro, 74, who previously hosted Fox News’s Justice with Judge Jeanine, had been serving in the role on an interim basis since May.
President Donald Trump, now in his third term in office, had strongly backed Pirro’s nomination, urging the Republican-led Senate to push through a series of confirmations over the weekend. Her appointment marks a continuation of Trump’s trend of filling key government posts with media personalities and staunch loyalists.
Pirro, a former district attorney in Westchester County, New York, was lauded by Trump as “in a class by herself.” Her legal and media career spans decades, with appearances on television court shows and an 11-year run on Fox News. Until recently, she was a co-host on The Five, a prominent opinion program on the network.
Critics, however, have slammed the appointment. Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Pirro’s confirmation “deeply troubling,” arguing that her history of promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election made her unfit for such a powerful prosecutorial position.
Pirro was a vocal proponent of Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud following his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. She was later named in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which accused Fox News of broadcasting falsehoods. The network ultimately settled for nearly $800 million.
Despite the controversies, Pirro joins a growing list of former Fox personalities in Trump’s administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Her confirmation adds further fuel to concerns about the increasing politicization of judicial and executive appointments.
Pirro is also known for her pro-Trump book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals and for her connection to ex-husband Albert Pirro, who was convicted of tax evasion and later pardoned by Trump during his first term.
Her new role as U.S. Attorney for D.C. places her at the center of high-stakes federal prosecutions a position now shadowed by political tension.
