
Trump names Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney for DC
"I am pleased to announce that Judge Jeanine Pirro will be appointed interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia," Trump posted on Truth Social on May 8. "Jeanine was Assistant District Attorney for Westchester County, New York, and then went on to serve as County Judge, and District Attorney, where she was the first woman ever to be elected to those positions."
Trump described Pirro as "crusader for victims of crime" and said she was "considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York."
Pirro, a former host of "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on Fox News for ten years, is currently the co-host of The Five, also on Fox News.
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that Martin was not "getting the support."
Martin, who has championed Jan. 6 Capitol attackers, faced a rare opposition from a Republican senator. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tillis said on May 6 that he decided not to support the nomination due to Martin's positions on Jan. 6 defendants.
"If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a US attorney for any district except the district where January 6th happened, the protest happened, I'd probably support him, but not in this district," Tillis told reporters.
By the end of the day, Trump had decided on a new role for Martin.
"Ed Martin has done an AMAZING job as interim U.S. Attorney, and will be moving to the Department of Justice as the new Director of the Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Pardon Attorney," wrote Trump on Truth Social. "In these highly important roles, Ed will make sure we finally investigate the Weaponization of our Government under the Biden Regime, and provide much needed Justice for its victims."
Contributing: Ayesha Bagchi
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Dan Bongino wants to move FBI training program from iconic Quantico HQ to Alabama: report
Leaders in the FBI are reportedly pushing to move one of the bureau's training programs from its headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama, as part of President Donald Trump's desire to move federal agencies out of the Washington D.C. area. Dan Bongino, the FBI deputy director, has preliminarily proposed moving the FBI National Academy, a 10-week training academy for 250 domestic and international law enforcement officers, to Huntsville, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The FBI's training program for new bureau hires and other parts of its facilities, including the laboratory division, would remain at Quantico, people familiar with the discussion told The Post. While the proposal is still in preliminary stages, it aligns with Trump's April deadline asking agencies to create plans to move their headquarters from Washington D.C., to separate areas of the country to ' be where the people are.' However, the push to move to Huntsville, the most populous city in Alabama, has drawn criticism from some personnel who believe the move could be unjustifiably costly, The Post reported. While the FBI has operated at Redstone Arsenal, a U.S. Army base near downtown Huntsville, for decades, some expressed concern that sending hundreds of staff and agents to set up the training facility would require upgrades. 'If you look at FBI field offices, for example, you'll see many that are not located in downtown areas given the highly specialized nature of these facilities and their security requirements,' Norman Dong, the former Public Buildings Service commissioner under the Obama administration, told Federal News Network in April. 'In places like Atlanta or Sacramento, these FBI offices are located far outside of the central city,' Dong added. The FBI Academy is currently located in Quantico, a town in Prince William County, Virginia, which is approximately 35 miles outside of D.C. A spokesperson for the FBI said that any relocation options were being evaluated to determine if it could save the bureau money while also serving as a sufficient facility. Since Trump took office in January, the bureau has undergone significant changes, beginning with its leadership. Trump nominated Kash Patel to serve as FBI director despite Patel having a history of taking controversial pro-Trump stances. The president then tapped Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who became a popular right-wing podcaster, as deputy director. After Patel was sworn in, he said he would relocate roughly 1,000 staff and agents out of the D.C. office and said he'd move 500 people to the Huntsville facility so the FBI could have more of a presence in other cities. Trump proposed moving federal buildings and agencies outside of D.C. during his first administration, but the plan did not have immense success, in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management's headquarters from D.C. to Grand Junction, Colorado in 2019 so it could be closer to the land it manages. However, a review by the Biden administration found that the move caused more than 80 percent of the agency's employees to leave. Eventually, the headquarters were restored back to Washington D.C.


The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Les Miserables actors drop out because Trump is attending show
President Trump and Vice President Vance, along with their wives, will attend a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, marking Trump 's first visit to the venue during his second term. Trump 's decision to assume control of the Kennedy Center, replacing previous leadership and vowing to eliminate 'woke' programming, has sparked controversy. In response to Trump 's involvement, some cast members of Les Misérables are expected to boycott the performance. Following Trump 's takeover, several high-profile performers and members resigned, and the center has experienced a significant drop in ticket sales, leading to canceled performances. Trump has expressed his fondness for Les Misérables, even suggesting the possibility of extending its run at the Kennedy Center, which is currently scheduled through July 13.


The Independent
38 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘We couldn't have scripted this better': The White House is thrilled with how events are unfolding in LA
Los Angeles may resemble a war zone, with thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines deployed in response to widespread anti-immigration raid protests, but the Trump White House reportedly couldn't be happier about the politics of the situation. 'We couldn't have scripted this better,' a senior White House aide told The Atlantic of the dynamic inside the Oval Office. 'It's like the 2024 election never ended: Trump is strong while Democrats are weak and defending the indefensible.' Trump insiders reportedly believe that the images of the protests, which have featured both large-scale peaceful demonstrations and multiple days of violence against police and immigration officers, as well as protesters burning vehicles and holding Mexican flags, play into the administration's message. On the campaign trail, Trump frequently claimed Democrats are weak on law and order, while alleging most immigrants are violent national security threats, despite data showing the opposite. 'This is what America voted for, period,' a Trump adviser told NBC News. 'This is the America First focus that got the president elected and is driven by nothing else than what he promised American voters.' 'Look at the violence, the attacks on law enforcement,' the adviser added. 'If Democrats want to support that, let them. This is why we win elections and they do not.' Trump has long valorized the military and called for them to form part of an aggressive response to civil unrest, reportedly sparring with his first term Defense Secretary Mark Esper over his opposition to sending active-duty troops to counter 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and allegedly asking if troops could 'shoot them in the legs or something.' During his first term, Trump ultimately deferred to state governors on whether to call up National Guard troops to respond to the 2020 protests, and governors in 32 states and Washington, D.C., ultimately did. This time around, Trump does not want to appeal to local leaders and is forging ahead on his own, including federalizing the California National Guard over the wishes of Los Angeles and state leaders, who have sued. 'Trump seems super intent on a very different path now, with a serious show of righteous force to protect American lives and property,' Steve Cortes, a longtime Trump adviser, told Politico. Another key force for the military-led response has been White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner who has repeatedly accused California officials of being in open rebellion against the government and its migration policies, a potential prelude to the White House invoking the emergency Insurrection Act. "Stephen has been clear in all the meetings: More military, faster," a Trump adviser told Axios. Top Democrats in California have accused the Trump administration of deliberately trying to provoke a crisis as a means to seize more power, first with heavy-duty immigration raids and then by invoking emergency powers to send military troops in to respond to the protests that followed. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves,' California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a nationally televised speech Tuesday evening. 'But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, meanwhile, has said the White House is using the crisis as a lab 'experiment.' 'This is chaos that was started in Washington,' Bass said Monday during a press conference. An outlier in his party, Senator John Fetterman has accused his fellow Democrats of losing 'the moral high ground' over the crisis by what he said was a refusal to 'condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.' Democratic leaders have generally condemned the violence and called for peaceful protest, while being sharply critical of the Trump administration's response. The Los Angeles crisis has also likely provided a welcome distraction from last week's major political scandal, the acrimonious public split between Trump and his former top ally, Elon Musk, who savaged the president's Big, Beautiful Bill spending package and accused Trump of being tied to the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilia scandal. In recent days, Trump and Musk have signaled they could be open to a reconciliation.