The U.S. Senate confirmed on Saturday the appointment of former judge and TV personality Jeanine Pirro to the key position of prosecutor in Washington, the latest appointment of a Fox News host to an important position made by President Donald Trump.
Jeanine Pirro was appointed as the prosecutor of the District of Columbia with 50 votes in favor and 45 against, following an explicit request from President Donald Trump for the Republican-controlled Senate to work this weekend to approve his appointments, AFP reports.
In May, the president, passionate about television and thus generous in tapping into the reserves of conservative media presenters to recruit members of his administration, appointed Jeanine Pirro as interim prosecutor in the federal capital.
A former feisty prosecutor from Westchester, New York, aged 74, she has been described by President Trump as belonging to a "special class."
- Trump sends his daughter-in-law, a former Fox News presenter, as ambassador to Greece
- A Fox News journalist will be the head of the Pentagon. He left the military in 2021 after being considered extremist
She gained notoriety by hosting several television shows, including "Justice with Judge Jeanine," aired for 11 years on Fox News, the favorite TV channel of conservatives.
With her position as prosecutor of the capital, one of the most important in the country, Jeanine Pirro thus joins other recruits for top positions within news outlets.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth co-hosted the show "Fox & Friends Weekend," while Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was a reality show contestant and co-host on Fox Business.
Dick Durbin, the leading Democratic lawmaker on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that Jeanine Pirro "should never be a permanent American prosecutor."
Durbin mentioned Jeanine Pirro's promotion of conspiracy theories related to the 2020 elections, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
She was also among the star presenters mentioned in a defamation lawsuit by voting machine manufacturer Dominion, which resulted in Fox News paying a huge sum of $787.5 million to settle the lawsuits.
Jeanine Pirro is the author of several books supporting Donald Trump.