Trump names Fox News host as top Washington prosecutor
The brash 73-year-old has been selected to work as interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, plucked from one of Trump's favourite hiring pools: right-leaning television networks.
09 May 2025 01:19pm
Jeanine Pirro speaks following an exclusive interview with Daniel Penny for Fox Nation on Dec 10, 2024 in New York City.(Photo by John Lamparski / AFP)
WASHINGTON - Donald Trump on Thursday appointed TV personality and former judge Jeanine Pirro to a key post in the US judiciary, the president's latest nomination of a Fox News on-air host to a position of government power.
The brash 73-year-old has been selected to work as interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, plucked from one of Trump's favourite hiring pools: right-leaning television networks.
Other hires from cable news include Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who co-hosted "Fox & Friends Weekend," and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former reality TV show competitor and Fox Business co-host.
The pick came soon after Trump pulled his first choice for the post, a defense lawyer who represented defendants charged in the Jan 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol. Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox News Network makes remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, Feb 23, 2017. - (Photo by Mike Theiler / AFP)
"I am pleased to announce that Judge Jeanine Pirro will be appointed interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, describing the former district attorney of New York's Westchester County as being "in a class by herself."
Pirro briefly entered politics in ill-fated attempts to run for the US Senate and for New York Attorney General, losing the latter race to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
She began earning wider public exposure by hosting a weekday television show, "Judge Jeanine Pirro," from 2008 to 2011. That year she joined Fox News Channel to host "Justice with Judge Jeanine," which ran for 11 years, and today she is a co-host of the network's show, "The Five."
Pirro has also authored several books, including "Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy," from 2018. The Washington Post described the book as "sycophantic" in its support for Trump.
After promoting unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud in 2020, Pirro was named a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which said Fox broadcast false statements about the company.
Fox News settled the case for nearly $800 million. - AFP
More Like This
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Borneo Post
3 hours ago
- Borneo Post
Pentagon chief warns China is 'preparing' to use military force in Asia
Hegseth (left) is greeted by his Singaporean counterpart Chan Chun Sing at a ministerial roundtable during the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore today. – AFP photo SINGAPORE (May 31): US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned today that China was 'credibly preparing' to use military force to upend the balance of power in Asia, vowing the United States was 'here to stay' in the region. The Pentagon chief made the remarks at an annual security forum in Singapore as the administration of US President Donald Trump spars with Beijing on trade, technology, and influence over strategic corners of the globe. China's representatives at the conference blasted the speech, calling it 'groundless accusations fabricated out of thin air'. Trump has launched a trade war with China since taking office in January, has sought to curb its access to key AI technologies and deepened security ties with allies such as the Philippines, which is engaged in escalating territorial disputes with Beijing. 'The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent,' Hegseth said at the Shangri-La Dialogue attended by defence officials from around the world. Beijing is 'credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific', he said. Hegseth warned that the Chinese military was building the capabilities to invade Taiwan and 'rehearsing for the real deal'. China has ramped up military pressure on Taiwan and held large-scale exercises around the island that are often described as preparations for a blockade or invasion. The United States was 'reorienting toward deterring aggression by communist China', Hegseth said, calling on US allies and partners in Asia to swiftly upgrade their defences in the face of mounting threats. 'Stirring up trouble' Hegseth described China's conduct as a 'wake-up call', accusing Beijing of endangering lives with cyber attacks, harassing its neighbours, and 'illegally seizing and militarising lands' in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit. It has clashed repeatedly with the Philippines in the strategic waters in recent months, with the flashpoint set to dominate discussions at the Singapore forum, according to US officials. As Hegseth spoke in Singapore, China's military announced that its navy and air force were carrying out routine 'combat readiness patrols' around the Scarborough Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks Beijing disputes with the Philippines. Beijing did not send any top defence ministry officials to the summit, dispatching instead a delegation from the People's Liberation Army National Defence University led by Rear Admiral Hu Gangfeng. Without referring to Hegseth by name, Hu said of his speech that 'these actions are essentially about stirring up trouble, creating division, inciting confrontation, and destabilising the Asia-Pacific'. 'They run counter to the prevailing trend, are unpopular — and are bound to fail,' Hu told a panel discussion. Hegseth's hard-hitting address also drew a critical reaction from Chinese analysts at the conference. Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, told reporters the speech was 'very unfriendly' and 'very confrontational', accusing Washington of double standards in demanding Beijing respect its neighbours while bullying its own — including Canada and Greenland. Hegseth's comments came after Trump stoked new trade tensions with China, arguing that Beijing had 'violated' a deal to de-escalate tariffs as the two sides appeared deadlocked in negotiations. The world's two biggest economies had agreed to temporarily lower eye-watering tariffs they had imposed on each other, pausing them for 90 days. 'Cannot dominate' Reassuring US allies today, Hegseth said the Asia-Pacific region was 'America's priority theatre', pledging to ensure 'China cannot dominate us — or our allies and partners'. He said the United States had stepped up cooperation with allies including the Philippines and Japan, and reiterated Trump's vow that 'China will not invade (Taiwan) on his watch'. However, he called on US partners in the region to ramp up spending on their militaries and 'quickly upgrade their own defences'. 'Asian allies should look to countries in Europe for a newfound example,' Hegseth said, citing pledges by NATO members including Germany to move towards Trump's defence spending target of five percent of GDP. 'Deterrence doesn't come on the cheap.' – AFP Asia China military Pete Hegseth Singapore US Secretary of Defense
Malay Mail
4 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Iran reiterates nuclear weapons ‘unacceptable' as US talks continue
TEHRAN, May 31 — Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said today that Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable,' reaffirming the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. TEHRAN, May 31 — Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable,' reaffirming the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter the widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe, Israel. 'If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,' Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. 'We agree with them on this issue.' Araghchi's remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran 'cannot have a nuclear weapon', while expressing hope of striking a deal soon. On Thursday, Araghchi hit out at what he called 'media speculation' that the two sides were close to an agreement, saying he was 'not sure if' a deal is 'imminent'. Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new agreement to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. No date or venue has yet been announced for the next round but Araghchi said Wednesday he expected an announcement from mediator Oman in the 'next few days'. The two governments are at odds over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which Washington has said must cease, but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Very good talks Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that 'we're having some very good talks with Iran', adding that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be 'appropriate right now'. Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defences during two exchanges of fire last year. Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes. Trump adopted a 'maximum pressure' policy against Tehran after abandoning the 2015 agreement and reimposed the sweeping sanctions which the deal had lifted in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities. Iran continued to honour the agreement for a year, but then began rolling back its own compliance with its terms. Iran has since built up the largest stockpile of highly enriched uranium of any state without a nuclear arsenal. The uranium is enriched to 60 percent, still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead but far beyond the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 agreement. In recent days, Tehran has said that if a deal is reached, it may consider allowing US inspectors to join the teams from the UN nuclear watchdog monitoring compliance with its terms. Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Iran 'will reconsider accepting American inspectors through the (International Atomic Energy) Agency' if 'an agreement is reached and Iran's demands are taken into account'. — AFP TEHRAN, May 31 — Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons 'unacceptable,' reaffirming the country's longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States. Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter the widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe, Israel. 'If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,' Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. 'We agree with them on this issue.' Araghchi's remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran 'cannot have a nuclear weapon', while expressing hope of striking a deal soon. On Thursday, Araghchi hit out at what he called 'media speculation' that the two sides were close to an agreement, saying he was 'not sure if' a deal is 'imminent'. Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new agreement to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. No date or venue has yet been announced for the next round but Araghchi said Wednesday he expected an announcement from mediator Oman in the 'next few days'. The two governments are at odds over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which Washington has said must cease, but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Very good talks Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that 'we're having some very good talks with Iran', adding that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be 'appropriate right now'. Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defences during two exchanges of fire last year. Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes. Trump adopted a 'maximum pressure' policy against Tehran after abandoning the 2015 agreement and reimposed the sweeping sanctions which the deal had lifted in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities. Iran continued to honour the agreement for a year, but then began rolling back its own compliance with its terms. Iran has since built up the largest stockpile of highly enriched uranium of any state without a nuclear arsenal. The uranium is enriched to 60 percent, still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead but far beyond the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 agreement. In recent days, Tehran has said that if a deal is reached, it may consider allowing US inspectors to join the teams from the UN nuclear watchdog monitoring compliance with its terms. Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Iran 'will reconsider accepting American inspectors through the (International Atomic Energy) Agency' if 'an agreement is reached and Iran's demands are taken into account'. — AFP Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter the widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe, Israel. 'If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,' Araghchi, Iran's lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. 'We agree with them on this issue.' Araghchi's remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said Iran 'cannot have a nuclear weapon', while expressing hope of striking a deal soon. On Thursday, Araghchi hit out at what he called 'media speculation' that the two sides were close to an agreement, saying he was 'not sure if' a deal is 'imminent'. Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new agreement to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. No date or venue has yet been announced for the next round but Araghchi said Wednesday he expected an announcement from mediator Oman in the 'next few days'. The two governments are at odds over Iran's uranium enrichment programme, which Washington has said must cease, but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Very good talks Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that 'we're having some very good talks with Iran', adding that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be 'appropriate right now'. Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defences during two exchanges of fire last year. Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes. Trump adopted a 'maximum pressure' policy against Tehran after abandoning the 2015 agreement and reimposed the sweeping sanctions which the deal had lifted in return for UN-monitored restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities. Iran continued to honour the agreement for a year, but then began rolling back its own compliance with its terms. Iran has since built up the largest stockpile of highly enriched uranium of any state without a nuclear arsenal. The uranium is enriched to 60 percent, still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead but far beyond the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 agreement. In recent days, Tehran has said that if a deal is reached, it may consider allowing US inspectors to join the teams from the UN nuclear watchdog monitoring compliance with its terms. Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami said Iran 'will reconsider accepting American inspectors through the (International Atomic Energy) Agency' if 'an agreement is reached and Iran's demands are taken into account'. — AFP
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Trump gets key wins at Supreme Court on immigration, despite some misgivings
(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court swept away this week another obstacle to one of President Donald Trump's most aggressively pursued policies - mass deportation - again showing its willingness to back his hardline approach to immigration. The justices, though, have signaled some reservations with how he is carrying it out. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the court already has been called upon to intervene on an emergency basis in seven legal fights over his crackdown on immigration. It most recently let Trump's administration end temporary legal status provided to hundreds of thousands of migrants for humanitarian reasons by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden while legal challenges in two cases play out in lower courts. The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a judge's order that had halted the revocation of immigration "parole" for more than 500,000 Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants. On May 19, it lifted another judge's order preventing the termination of "temporary protected status" for more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. In some other cases, however, the justices have ruled that the administration must treat migrants fairly, as required under the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of due process. "This president has been more aggressive than any in modern U.S. history to quickly remove non-citizens from the country," said Kevin Johnson, an immigration and public interest law expert at the University of California, Davis. No president in modern history "has been as willing to deport non-citizens without due process," Johnson added. That dynamic has forced the Supreme Court to police the contours of the administration's actions, if less so the legality of Trump's underlying policies. The court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his first term as president. "President Trump is acting within his lawful authority to deport illegal aliens and protect the American people. While the Supreme Court has rightfully acknowledged the president's authority in some cases, in others they have invented new due process rights for illegal aliens that will make America less safe. We are confident in the legality of our actions and will continue fighting to keep President Trump's promises," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Reuters. The justices twice - on April 7 and on May 16 - have placed limits on the administration's attempt to implement Trump's invocation of a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act, which historically has been employed only in wartime, to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants who it has accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Lawyers and family members of some of the migrants have disputed the gang membership allegation. On May 16, the justices also said a bid by the administration to deport migrants from a detention center in Texas failed basic constitutional requirements. Giving migrants "notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster," the court stated. Due process generally requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions. The court has not outright barred the administration from pursuing these deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, as the justices have yet to decide the legality of using the law for this purpose. The U.S. government last invoked the Alien Enemies Act during World War Two to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent. "The Supreme Court has in several cases reaffirmed some basic principles of constitutional law (including that) the due process clause applies to all people on U.S. soil," said Elora Mukherjee, director of Columbia Law School's immigrants' rights clinic. Even for alleged gang members, Mukherjee said, the court "has been extremely clear that they are entitled to notice before they can be summarily deported from the United States." A WRONGLY DEPORTED MAN In a separate case, the court on April 10 ordered the administration to facilitate the release from custody in El Salvador of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland. The administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador. The administration has yet to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, which according to some critics amounts to defiance of the Supreme Court. The administration deported on March 15 more than 200 people to El Salvador, where they were detained in the country's massive anti-terrorism prison under a deal in which the United States is paying President Nayib Bukele's government $6 million. Ilya Somin, a constitutional law professor at George Mason University, said the Supreme Court overall has tried to curb the administration's "more extreme and most blatantly illegal policies" without abandoning its traditional deference to presidential authority on immigration issues. "I think they have made a solid effort to strike a balance," said Somin, referring to the Alien Enemies Act and Abrego Garcia cases. "But I still think there is excessive deference, and a tolerance for things that would not be permitted outside the immigration field." That deference was on display over the past two weeks with the court's decisions letting Trump terminate the grants of temporary protected status and humanitarian parole previously given to migrants. Such consequential orders were issued without the court offering any reasoning, Mukherjee noted. "Collectively, those two decisions strip immigration status and legal protections in the United States from more than 800,000 people. And the decisions are devastating for the lives of those who are affected," Mukherjee said. "Those individuals could be subject to deportations, family separation, losing their jobs, and if they're deported, possibly even losing their lives." TRAVEL BAN RULING Trump also pursued restrictive immigration policies in his first term as president, from 2017-2021. The Supreme Court gave Trump a major victory in 2018, upholding his travel ban targeting people from several Muslim-majority countries. In 2020, the court blocked Trump's bid to end a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of migrants - often called "Dreamers" - who entered the United States illegally as children. Other major immigration-related cases are currently pending before the justices, including Trump's effort to broadly enforce his January executive order to restrict birthright citizenship - a directive at odds with the longstanding interpretation of the Constitution as conferring citizenship on virtually every baby born on U.S. soil. The court heard arguments in that case on May 15 and has not yet rendered a decision. Another case concerns the administration's efforts to increase the practice of deporting migrants to countries other than their own, including to places such as war-torn South Sudan. Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy required that migrants destined for so-called "third countries" be notified and given a meaningful chance to seek legal relief by showing the harms they may face by being send there. Murphy on May 21 ruled that the administration had violated his court order by attempting to deport migrants to South Sudan. They are now being held at a military base in Djibouti. The administration on May 27 asked the justices to lift Murphy's order because it said the third-country process is needed to remove migrants who commit crimes because their countries of origin are often unwilling to take them back. Johnson predicted that the Supreme Court will side with the migrants in this dispute. "I think that the court will enforce the due process rights of a non-citizen before removal to a third country," Johnson said. (Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Additional reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
