Janine Piro Appointed Interim US Attorney: Implications and Reactions

[Music] Another Fox News host is set to join the Trump administration. President Trump

tapped the five co-host Janine Piro to serve as interim US attorney for the District of Columbia. The president

announced this on his Truth Social account Thursday, posting, quote, Janine is incredibly wellqualified for this

position and is considered one of the top district attorneys in the history of the state of New York. She is in a class

by herself. Congratulations, Janine. She sat at Fox's anchor desk for 14 years after becoming a household name on Court

TV show Judge Janine Piro. Prior to co-hosting, she served as assistant DA in New York's Westchester County, then

went on to serve as county judge. She was the first, by the way, woman elected to those positions there. Reactions are

pouring in. Left-leaning lawyer Tristan Snow, who prosecuted the Trump University case, said, quote, "How many

more TV hosts is Trump going to put in serious positions they are unqualified for? This is the US government, not the

celebrity apprentice. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham applauded the move, writing on ex quote grand slam

home run hattrick pick. I am beyond pleased with President Trump's decision. So this came after a big fight over Ed

Martin who was the acting or still is I guess at this current moment uh the US uh district attorney for Washington DC.

One of the sticking points for him was that he did not have prior prosecutor prosecutorial experience. And Senator

Tom Tillis from North Carolina said that he would not vote to advance his confirmation beyond the uh Senate

Judiciary Committee, which basically made his nomination dead on arrival. Um, and that was when Trump opted to pick

another person for that position because if the time had run out for a nomination, the law states that the

judge, which in this case is Judge James Boseberg, who hasn't been particularly friendly to the Trump administration,

ruling against them on the Alien Enemies Act, would get to choose the person to fill that vacancy until Trump picked

another candidate. Um, so he really was up against the clock on this one. And and look, they've known each other for

many years. I think it's interesting that she has not practiced uh or I should say held a law enforcement job in

two decades. Um you know she uh we know her ex-husband her former husband that Trump back in I believe it was the year

2000 pardoned pardoned him uh conviction of conspiracy and tax evasion. So they've got a deep friendship that goes

back that involves her ex-husband. Um she's also been a backer of that whole 2020 election, you know, um really

spewing some of the the the claims that we heard uh on Fox that, you know, is this legitimate? Then Fox had to settle

that um you know, some of their hosts were wrong about that, you know, really disputing that 2020 election and that

whole theory. So, she's backed Trump in a number of ways. She's proved herself, we know, as a loyalist, and Trump loves

a staunch supporter and and she's done that really well. and this is maybe his way of rewarding her, but it's also her

way of helping him out too because as you point out the clock was taken. Yeah. I think the important thing for me is

that Washington DC has had a serious crime issue in the past decade, particularly following 2020. They were

one of the slowest to recover from the crime spike related to the pandemic and the 2020 summer of riots. And she is a

very tough on crime prosecutor, evidenced by her time as district attorney um back in New York. She was

very well respected in that position as you mentioned the first woman to be elected to that role. Um Ed Martin took

a lot a very similar posture to that issue. According to sources in law enforcement who spoke to the Daily

Caller prior to uh Ed Martin taking over. The prior attorney that was chosen by Joe Biden only uh did not prosecute

67% of cases that came across his desk. That completely did a 180 under Ed Martin. He was prosecuting 65% of cases.

I think we'll see very similar things from Judge Janine Piro and it Tom Tillis has already said that he intends to

support her confirmation as well. Yeah, she has not been um you know I think important for the public to know she has

not been lawfully appointed. Um you know there's there's cycle of this 120 days and there's a timing to all of this and

you know Trump selected her. Um so we'll see how things things play out and is he also on a bigger picture is he sidest

stepping to get confirmation on her um by doing the interim and then how long will she be interim you know so there's

a lot of I think um you know things that that because of the way this has played out there is a potential for criminal

defendants to say well she wasn't the one during the time that I was maybe you know in the court process and so

depending and she hasn't appointed. So they could potentially have a case where they could say we want

it thrown out potential criminal defendants who are who are you know right now facing potential trials. So

we'll see how that plays out even from that lens which I think hasn't been talked about as much as the impact of

this for criminal defendants. It is interesting though another Fox News host I kind of side at the beginning of this

because it's like another one I mean are we really just going to Fox News and just plucking people left and right. um

she's leaving obviously a lucrative TV position that she's been in for many years. I just think it's becoming to

look like Fox News and you are you are getting a lot of people who don't have um necessarily the credentials that

we've seen in the past and we know that we mentioned earlier in the show, you know, he bucks tradition and the way he

selects people a lot of times and a lot of his fan base enjoys that, but it is beginning to be a little bit like, okay,

we get that you love Fox News, but come on. She does have decades of prosecutorial experience though. I mean,

you could make the argument, well, she hasn't done it in a while, but a while. She's done it in two decades, but she

did serve in in those roles for decades as well. And again, her career was very well respected. Um, and you know, I

think the the Fox News thing is a little bit of a red herring because there are a lot of Democratic officials who cycle in

and out of cable news jobs to join administrations. Jim Shudo was an example of that. He served under Obama.

Now he's a CNN anchor supposedly on the hard news side. Jen Saki and Simone Sanders both left the Biden

administration to join MSNBC. I think we would be naive to think that if a future Democratic administration, but it's

reversed. It goes the other way. Of course, I mean, this is a there's a classic cable news to government

rotating cycle revolving door. So, I don't think this is at all unique to the Trump administration. The other element

of this that is uh quite interesting is that Ed Martin is not straight up leaving the administration. He's been

appointed to a different position that does not require Senate confirmation. He will go to the DOJ as the new director

of the weaponization working group and the associate deputy attorney general as well as the pardon attorney, which does

seem like a bit of a thumb in the eye to Tom Tillis because Tom Tillis's objection was that Ed Martin was too

kind in defending some of the January 6 um riers and and people who trespassed at the Capitol that day. and he said,

you know, if he were being appointed to any other district or state or or anything, then um I would support him,

but because it's in DC where the capital riot took place, that's why I can't um support his nomination. So now going to

pardon attorney where he would actually have even more jurisdiction over those choices of more power to give uh to

advise the president on who he gives pardons to. Trump is clearly saying, "I'm still sticking with Ed Martin. He

can't get confirmed, so I have really no choice but to put him somewhere else. But he's not leaving by any means. Well,

right. And we and we have seen how Trump understands politics and positioning and what he needs confirmation on and

timelines so thoroughly compared to the first term. We've seen that I think his understanding of how government works

was, you know, lacking. Of course, he hadn't been in government before in the first term. And you can see in this term

he really understood which is why I think he's moving at speed with so many initiatives but he's understanding who

he can put where and whether he needs Senate confirmation and the timelines with that and maybe he has better

advisers too. I'm not sure um who are giving him a little bit more detail on what you can and can't do but it seems

like he's getting some more wins in his column when it comes to that. Right. He's understanding exactly who to your

point who he can put where and what kind of authority is needed to approve it. So I think we're just going to see more of

this going forward. I think we're probably going to see more Fox News personalities probably in really high up

positions potentially. And so this is to me the start. We're not even six months in which is pretty crazy. It's been a

whirlwind. I mean, one of the things with the Fox News host that I think I see shaping out or playing out in this

administration is that when he's in these looking at these top level positions, he does some want someone who

can be on message, who can present well on TV and basically make the case on behalf of the administration as a means

of combating what he sees as media bias from the establishment or legacy media. And then in the positions underneath

those people, he has people with more experience who know the ins and outs of the departments who maybe have legal

experience and are basically actually the ones pulling the levers and running the departments and the agencies while

the person at top is really more of a public facing spokesperson. Yeah. Or a puppet depending on how you look at it.

So well I would say that people who serve under the president should be committed to executing his agenda. I

agree with that. Yep. I agree with that. All right. Up next, one of the world's richest men is giving up all of his

wealth. Stick with us for that on Rising. [Music]