[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 134 (Saturday, August 2, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5506-S5507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Jeanine Pirro

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, later today, the Senate will vote on the 
nomination of Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. Attorney for the District of 
Columbia. I urge my colleagues to examine this nominee's record and 
oppose her nomination.
  I have heard some of my Republican colleagues claim that Senate 
Democrats are blocking U.S. attorney nominees in an unprecedented 
fashion. That is simply not true.
  Two years ago, then-Senator Vance announced he would block all U.S. 
Attorney nominees in order to ``grind the [the Justice Department] to a 
halt.''
  I went to the floor eight times seeking unanimous consent to quickly 
confirm the U.S. attorney nominees whom Senator Vance was blocking.
  Senator Vance argued it was no problem to take rollcall votes on U.S. 
attorney nominees, stating that it is ``not too much to ask . . . to 
vote on cloture and vote on these nominees on the record.''
  I have said time and again that there cannot be one set of rules for 
Republicans and one for Democrats. That said, I am willing to work with 
my Senate colleagues on a path forward.
  However, President Trump is not making it easy to reach an agreement 
when he insists on installing MAGA loyalists as interim U.S. attorneys 
without Senate confirmation.
  U.S. attorneys are supposed to be apolitical law enforcement 
officials focused on protecting public safety. But shortly after her 
interim appointment to the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba told a 
news outlet that she aimed to ``turn New Jersey red.''
  And just last year, John Sarcone, the interim U.S. Attorney for the 
Northern District of New York said the Democratic Party is ``evil in my 
opinion.''
  District of Nevada interim U.S. attorney Sigal Chattah has a long 
trail of extreme, hateful comments. To take just a few examples, she 
called a Black Member of Congress a ``hood rat''; called a Black woman 
prosecutor ``ghetto''; called a prominent Black entertainer a 
``monkey''; and said that Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is 
Black, ``should be hanging from

[[Page S5507]]

a f-ing crane.'' And these outrageous comments are just the tip of the 
iceberg.
  Do these sound like apolitical prosecutors who are focused on keeping 
their communities safe? Notably, the White House has not even bothered 
to try working with home State Senators in each of these districts to 
find a consensus U.S. attorney candidates. Instead, the administration 
is trying to make an end-run around the Senate. This should be deeply 
troubling to all of us.
  Which brings me to Ms. Pirro, the latest Trump loyalist nominated to 
be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. For decades, Ms. Pirro 
has demonstrated that she prioritizes her relationship with President 
Trump over almost everything else.
  Ms. Pirro repeated falsehoods about the 2020 election to millions of 
viewers, compelling Fox News to pay nearly $800 million to settle 
defamation claims brought by Dominion Voting Systems. For example, Ms. 
Pirro falsely claimed that Dominion ``started in Venezuela with Cuban 
money'' and that the company had a software backdoor to flip votes.
  She has called January 6 rioters ``hostages'' and complained about 
the 22-year sentence imposed on Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, 
arguing that he should not be subject to such a long prison term.
  Notably, a judge found that Tarrio's actions led to ``two hundred men 
amped up for battle encircling the Capitol.'' After his release, Tarrio 
posted a video of himself stalking officers who defended the Capitol on 
January 6.
  Ms. Pirro has argued that prosecutors handling January 6 cases should 
be criminally prosecuted themselves. And now she is nominated to lead 
the office where many of these prosecutors still work, if they haven't 
been fired by Emil Bove already.
  When I met with her last month, I asked Ms. Pirro if she always 
accepted assignments given to her by supervisors when she was an 
assistant district attorney. Unsurprisingly, she said yes.
  But when I asked her whether it was appropriate to terminate 
prosecutors for their work on January 6 prosecutions, she wouldn't 
answer. She also claimed that she hadn't fired anybody.
  Yet since Ms. Pirro became the interim U.S. attorney, three career 
prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office, including the leader of the 
Capitol Siege Section, were fired by DOJ. It is hard to believe that 
she had no knowledge of these terminations.
  I am also concerned that Ms. Pirro continues to justify the Trump 
administration's unlawful actions.
  Just days before she became the interim U.S. attorney, she argued 
that the administration could deport immigrants without due process, 
claiming that the Fifth Amendment ``says nothing about illegals, so cut 
the crap . . . .''
  As Ms. Pirro knows full well, the Fifth Amendment applies to everyone 
present in the United States as it states that ``No person . . . shall 
. . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of 
law.''
  Ms. Pirro has proven to be a willing accomplice in weaponizing the 
justice system to protect President Trump's allies and go after his 
enemies. I urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination.