Before she became Washington’s top prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro turned down a chance to serve as FBI Director Kash Patel’s second-in-command.
At the end of last year, two of President Donald Trump’s aides approached Pirro about becoming Patel’s deputy, The New York Times reported. But the longtime Trump ally told them she had “no interest” in working under Patel—a right-wing podcaster with no law enforcement experience when Trump tapped him to lead the bureau.
The gig ultimately went to Dan Bongino, another MAGA podcaster and a former Secret Service agent.
Pirro now serves as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.—a role more powerful than ever as Trump pushes to federalize the capital under the banner of a crime crackdown.
Unlike Patel, Pirro has a background helpful to her new role, having served as both a prosecutor and judge in New York’s Westchester County. But at 74, she hasn’t run a prosecutor’s office in decades, having spent much of the last 20 years as a Fox News firebrand.
Privately, Pirro has fumed about the bureaucracy at her new post, bristling at requirements that she obtain approval of other officials before taking actions she would have done unilaterally as Westchester County district attorney two decades ago, the Times reported.
She has applauded Trump’s decision last week to federalize D.C. police and deploy the National Guard because she says crime is “out of control” in the city—even though data show it has fallen to a 30-year low.
Indeed, Pirro is playing a leading role in promoting the White House’s law-and-order push, appearing on Fox News throughout the week to berate critics.
“You know what? Go to D.C. Experience D.C.! I want you to go there—go right ahead!” she said on Fox & Friends Sunday morning. “But here’s what the president is going to do. He’s going to make a difference. We’re going to change the laws. We’ve got liberal judges, we’ve got liberal laws—everything’s gonna change.”
She also made baseless—but on-brand—claims that protesters were paid actors, the latest in a long line of conspiracy theories she’s pushed on the conservative network.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Pirro and Patel for comment.
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