One of President Donald Trump’s closest allies, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, has had a recent string of “repeated failures” in securing indictments against the president’s political enemies, but those very “failures,” argued MS NOW producer Steve Benen, could ultimately elevate her to the nation’s top law enforcement post.
Pirro’s latest “humiliating failure,” Benen wrote in a report published Monday, came after the Justice Department dropped its criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump relentlessly attacked for refusing to lower interest rates to his liking, despite the decision not being entirely Powell’s to make.
In the midst of Trump’s hunt for a new attorney general – with the president having fired his previous attorney general, Pam Bondi, reportedly out of frustration over her inability to secure indictments against his political foes – reports suggest that Pirro may be well positioned to take on the role, and, according to Benen, precisely because of her string of “failures.”
“The odd thing is, it’s far from clear whether her repeated failures make her any less appealing to the White House – or more,” Benen wrote in MS NOW’s report.
“On one hand, Trump rejects those seen as ‘losers’; on the other, the hapless U.S. attorney keeps going after his perceived foes, indifferent to merit or propriety, which is exactly the kind of quality the president seems to be looking for at Main Justice.”
While Trump named his deputy attorney general Todd Blanche as acting attorney general in Bondi’s absence, he has yet to reveal who he’s considering for a more permanent replacement. Multiple media outlets have reported figures like Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin or U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) as potential successors, though Pirro remains a speculative contender.