Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, refused to say whether she would prosecute President Donald Trump if he were to shoot someone on Pennsylvania Avenue. The refusal happened during an interview, when her spokesperson stepped in to stop her from answering the question.
The exchange was part of a profile by New York Magazine‘s Washington D.C. correspondent Ben Terris. Terris asked Pirro directly: “If Donald Trump were to shoot someone in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, would you prosecute him?” The question referenced Trump’s well-known 2016 remark, where he said he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and still not lose voters.
Pirro began to respond, saying, “I’ll use Donald Trump’s own words,” before turning to her spokesperson, Tim Lauer, who was present. Lauer cut in, saying, “This should focus on our office and our work. I don’t know we should be getting into hypotheticals.” When Pirro asked if he knew what she was going to say, Lauer replied, “It’s off the record, and you’re not using it.” Pirro then refused to answer, saying, “Then I’m not going to say it if he doesn’t want me to.”
Pirro’s silence on the question takes on greater meaning given that she is reportedly eyeing the Attorney General role
The incident is notable because sources familiar with Pirro say she wants to become Attorney General. This comes after President Trump recently removed Attorney General Pam Bondi from the role. Trump quickly named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal defense lawyer, to fill the position in an acting capacity for up to 210 days while a permanent replacement is found.
Several names have come up as potential candidates for the role. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is one contender Trump has reportedly spoken with, though his appointment would require two Senate confirmation hearings. Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, has also been mentioned. When asked about the possibility, Dhillon said, “That’s up to the president,” adding she was “flattered to be mentioned.”
Missouri’s former Attorney General and current Senator Eric Schmitt is also on the list, having previously led major litigation against the Biden administration. This comes at a time when U.S. foreign and domestic tensions remain high, including how U.S. and Israel struck Iran’s missile tunnel entrances and the broader geopolitical pressures shaping Washington’s priorities.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who sits on the committee that vets attorney general nominees, has already set a clear standard. He said the “threshold for somebody following Pam Bondi ends the moment I hear they said one thing that excused the events of January the 6th.”
Bondi’s time as Attorney General drew criticism from both parties, particularly over the Justice Department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking cases. She also struggled to bring criminal charges against politicians seen as Trump’s political opponents, with the exception of former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who was indicted for mishandling classified documents.
A source close to Pirro claimed she had been “trying to put the knife in Bondi, saying she’s not a prosecutor and doesn’t have control of the building.” Meanwhile, international affairs continue to influence the political climate in Washington, including Iran’s false flag accusations against Israel over alleged missile incidents, which have added further strain to an already tense global environment.
Despite denying any ambition for the role, Pirro is said to be close to Trump and speaks with him regularly. According to Fox News, when Trump was asked about Pirro as a potential replacement for Bondi, he said they were both “great people,” which stopped short of ruling her out. Pirro, a 74-year-old former judge, prosecutor, and Fox News personality, was appointed by Trump last year to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington D.C., the most high-profile of the 93 such offices in the country.
However, her tenure has been marked by a series of failed high-profile indictments. A grand jury rejected her office’s attempt to indict a group of Democratic lawmakers who had made a video urging military and intelligence officials to refuse illegal orders. Her office also failed multiple times to secure indictments in cases tied to the federal government’s takeover of Washington D.C., which involved a large deployment of federal agents and National Guard troops.
In one widely covered case, a man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal agent, quickly dubbed “Sandwich Guy” by the media, was not convicted, the charge was downgraded and a jury later found him not guilty. Similarly, her office failed to convince three separate grand juries to indict Sydney Reid on felony charges of assaulting an FBI agent, eventually settling on a single misdemeanor charge, of which Reid was also acquitted.
Published: Apr 6, 2026 10:30 am