President Trump said Thursday that he will name Fox News figure Jeanine Pirro, whose false statements about the 2020 election are part of a lawsuit against the network, a temporary lawyer in Washington who was forced to make a first choice.
Ms. Pirro, a former Republican district attorney in Westchester County, New York, solved a tricky plight for the president, said hours ago that he would withdraw his nomination under pressure from Senate Republicans to permanently install U.S. interim attorney Ed Martin.
“During his tenure, Jenny was a powerful crusador to the victims of crime,” the president wrote on social media, adding: “She taught herself.”
This move raises legal issues. Mr. Trump appears to be relying on a positive explanation of the appointment rights, and Ms. Piroro's installation could face legal challenges. A ruling that her appointment could undermine criminal cases while maintaining her dominance would expand Mr. Trump’s power to bypass the Senate.
Ms. Pirro, 73, has known the president for decades and has won his trust and will provide him with a reliable route to become one of the most important federal prosecutor's offices in the country's Justice Department.
Ms. Pirro has not been in law enforcement for two decades since she was a district attorney in search of senior positions, including a Senate campaign against Hillary Clinton before the 2006 election.
Several attributes of Ms. Pirro made her interested in Mr. Trump: She was on TV every day, defending him with the band Husky Docked of Ship as a member of the “Five” talk show on Fox; she induces risks in her personal election. She was obviously willing to abandon the profitable TV career in a short time to lift him out of the embarrassing jam.
Ms. Pirro's name recognition is higher than that of a relatively obscure right-wing activist in Missouri, thanks to her reality TV station's reality TV show “Judge Jeanine” on CW Network and Fox.
But she has a similar preference for partisan fighting.
Like Mr. Martin, she supports Mr. Trump’s efforts to revenge his political enemies, which supports the challenge of federal judges who questioned the legitimacy of his immigration policies and spent months protesting the legitimacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 presidency.
Ms. Pirro is one of the Fox hosts mentioned in the lawsuit filed by Dominion voting system that challenges the effectiveness of the vote for Fox broadcasts. Fox settled the case and was forced to admit that Pirro and others' statements were wrong.
She defended Mr. Trump firmly, supporting him when he needed it most, especially in the days leading up to the 2016 election, when the “Access Hollywood” performance threatened to overwhelm his campaign.
He was also proven to be a reliable ally of her family. In 2021, in the last hours of his first term, Mr. Trump pardoned Ms. Pirro's former husband and a lawyer for Mr. Trump – Albert J. Pirro Jr.
By replacing one interim U.S. attorney with another, the Trump administration appears to be trying a legal strategy that essentially eliminates any need to submit a U.S. attorney’s choice to the Senate for confirmation.
However, the move is likely to be the criminal defendant prosecuted in Washington after Martin’s 120-day appointment expires on May 20, citing Ms. Pirro’s failure to legally appoint. In a similar case, the court dismissed some actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security during Mr. Trump’s first term, ruling that he had illegally appointed Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II to lead U.S. citizenship and immigration services.
The issue violates federal law, giving the President the authority to appoint anyone who is 120 days of interim attorney under vacancy. It also said that if the appointment expires, the federal court can appoint its own choice as interim prosecutor until there are officials confirmed by the Senate.
The traditional understanding of the law is that it provides the president with a 120-day window after which the court can appoint someone. To be sure, Mr. Trump will not be limited to the court's choice: he can fire anyone he doesn't like immediately.
But after 120 days, he will be limited to acting in American lawyers under the Vacancy Reform Act. That would narrow his options to a senior Justice Department official who has confirmed another position in his administration, or at least 90 days before the position is open, which actually means someone serving in the Biden administration.
The administration has not yet publicly explained how it believes Mr. Trump has the legal authority to appoint Ms. Pirov. But, legal experts say the most obvious theory is that because Mr. Martin leaves before reaching 120 days, his term never expires, so Mr. Trump can start over.
If the court is to uphold Ms. Piro's appointment, Mr. Trump only needs to change the person we like every 119 days without Senate review, and even by changing people between different regions.
Fox News said Ms. Pirro will immediately resign from the internet, calling her “a long-time, long-time popular host on Fox News’ media, who has contributed greatly to our success throughout the 14-year tenure.”
Ms. Pirro is a native of Elmira, NY, attends Albany Law School and earned a reputation as a prosecutor focused on domestic violence cases.
Over the years, her name has appeared on a brief list of various Trump administration appointments, including the Attorney General and the Supreme Court.
ABC News earlier reported that Ms. Pirro was considering being a U.S. attorney in Washington.
Mr Trump said Thursday he will put Mr Martin in a new role in the Justice Department, making him the deputy attorney general and pardon attorney. The government fired a previous pardon attorney in a dispute over whether to restore gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, who convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
Mr. Martin will also be the director of the Weaponization Working Group, an effort that allegedly aims to eradicate the “abuse of criminal justice procedures” by local and federal law enforcement officers, but this appears to provide the president with an exact leverage to his perceived enemy.
Michael M. Grynbaum Contribution report.
