The Senate on Saturday confirmed Jeanine Pirro, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Washington, D.C.’s top prosecutor, as part of a limited batch of confirmations after lawmakers failed to reach a broader deal on advancing dozens of the president’s outstanding picks.
Pirro, a former New York judge, prosecutor, and Fox News host, was among more than 150 nominees awaiting Senate action. While Senate Republicans had hoped to overcome Democratic resistance and push through a larger slate over the weekend, last-minute negotiations collapsed.
In the end, lawmakers confirmed just seven nominees before adjourning until September.
Pirro was confirmed by a 50-45 vote to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, a role she has held on an interim basis since May, Fox News reported.
Before her appointment, Pirro spent more than a decade as the District Attorney of Westchester County, New York. She also served as a judge in Westchester County during the early 1990s.
“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 said when he nominated Pirro. “She is in a class by herself.”
She was not Trump’s initial nominee for the post. His first choice, Ed Martin, failed to secure enough Republican support earlier this year. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) effectively sank Martin’s nomination due to concerns over his stance on the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Senate Democrats criticized Pirro for promoting Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims and defending him in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot during her tenure as a Fox News host.
They warned that, as Washington D.C.’s top prosecutor, she would act in lockstep with the president’s agenda, but that is no different than U.S. attorneys serving under Democratic presidents.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Democrats staged a walkout in protest of both Pirro and U.S. District Judge Emil Bove, who was narrowly confirmed earlier this week by a 50–49 vote. Pirro was later advanced from the committee on a party-line vote.
Regarding Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard strongly hinted last week that she had found evidence that could finally vindicate the president.
In an interview with conservative influencer Benny Johnson, she confirmed that the 2020 election was compromised and that federal officials were aware of the vulnerabilities.
During a high-level Cabinet meeting with President Trump earlier this year, Gabbard revealed that the Intelligence Community has been actively investigating evidence of election interference and potential tampering with electronic voting systems.
In the meeting, she noted signs that both foreign and domestic actors may have attempted to manipulate vote totals. “I’ve got a long list of things that we’re investigating. We have the best going after this, election integrity being one of them,” Gabbard said during the April meeting.
“We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast, which further drives forward your mandate to bring about paper ballots across the country so that voters can have faith in the integrity of our elections,” she revealed.
In her interview with Johnson, Gabbard revealed that a whistleblower from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) came forward with alarming evidence indicating the government was aware of major vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines prior to the 2020 election—but intentionally chose not to act or inform the public.
“What was interesting was seeing how this whistleblower brought forward information that CISA—at that time, the federal government—was aware of vulnerabilities in our election machines, but they chose not to disclose that information to the American people or to the administration at that time,” she said.
“Okay, so we’re going to be hearing more on the 2020 election and some critical vulnerabilities?” Johnson pressed. Gabbard responded: “Yes.”