All posts tagged: Jeanine Pirro

Pirro’s losses in Fed matter should stay on the books, judge rules

Pirro’s losses in Fed matter should stay on the books, judge rules

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announces charges in connection with an international car theft ring during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2026. Nathan Howard | Reuters A federal judge in Washington on Thursday denied a prosecutor’s request to erase the record of the government’s legal losses during its attempt to investigate former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Chief Judge James Boasberg, in a scathing order in D.C. District Court, replete with media quotes and links to a YouTube clip, denied a motion by the office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to vacate his earlier rulings that had gone against Pirro. The latest development caps a monthslong legal saga that saw Boasberg halt aspects of an investigation by Pirro into the Fed. Boasberg in March quashed a pair of subpoenas Pirro issued because, he ruled, Pirro’s effort was intended at least in part to “harass and pressure Powell” on behalf of the president, who wanted lower interest rates. Read more CNBC politics coverage Pirro …

Accused Trump attacker Cole Allen’s treatment in jail eyed by judge

Accused Trump attacker Cole Allen’s treatment in jail eyed by judge

Published by Sam Flores

A video still showing Cole Allen at the gym at the Hilton ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Courtesy: USAttyPirro An irritated federal judge on Monday said it appeared that Cole Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, has been treated more harshly by a jail than it treated defendants in Jan. 6, 2021, attack criminal cases. “I can tell you I have never had a January 6th defendant who was put in 5-point restraints or a safe cell,” Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui told prosecutors and the top attorney for the District of Columbia’s jail system, during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Faruqui said he found it “extremely disturbing” and was “very troubled” that the 31-year-old Allen had been placed under suicide watch and had restrictions imposed without a finding that he was at risk for suicide and without having a criminal history. “A lot of people have seemed to forget about Jan. 6, but I have not,” …

Pirro appears to drop plans to appeal criminal probe of Fed’s Powell

Pirro appears to drop plans to appeal criminal probe of Fed’s Powell

Published by Sam Flores

Jeanine Pirro is sworn in as the new interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia during a ceremony hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 28, 2025. Leah Millis | Reuters U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Sunday appeared to abandon a plan to appeal an adverse ruling in her attempts to criminally investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Pirro has long said she planned to ask a higher court to review recent rulings by Chief Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia quashing her subpoenas to the Fed. She has argued that the judge’s decision makes it difficult for her to conduct grand jury investigations in general. Her appeal was due by Monday. Pirro appeared to change tack in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We’re going to make a motion to vacate the order of Judge Boasberg, because we think it’s extremely important for us as prosecutors, the precedent that it sets to prevent us from going into …

Pirro keeps pressure on Fed’s Powell despite dropping probe

Pirro keeps pressure on Fed’s Powell despite dropping probe

Published by Sam Flores

Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, Feb. 6, 2026. Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro may have suspended her criminal investigation into outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but she and her office remain at the center of the power struggle over the influential central bank. How she handles an imminent appeal will help determine the extent of President Donald Trump’s influence on the Fed. Pirro has until Monday to appeal District of Columbia Chief Judge James Boasberg’s rulings quashing her subpoenas to the Fed. What her office says in the filing will be critical in determining how long Powell stays on the Fed after his chairmanship ends, and therefore when Trump is able to appoint a new Fed governor to replace him. It could also determine whether the effective ceasefire between Trump and the Fed settles in or if hostilities recommence, potentially unsettling markets. The Department of Justice didn’t …

Trump attack suspect Cole Allen video released by Pirro

Trump attack suspect Cole Allen video released by Pirro

Published by Sam Flores

Dramatic surveillance video released Thursday shows alleged would-be assassin Cole Tomas Allen casing a hallway at the Washington Hilton Hotel on April 24, and then the next evening, storming through a Secret Service checkpoint at that hotel outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where President Donald Trump was set to give a speech. The video shows a Secret Service officer quickly pulling his handgun and firing multiple times at Allen as he sprints toward and through the checkpoint with what prosecutors have said was a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in his hands. The new video was posted on X by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, whose office is prosecuting Allen, a 31-year-old Caltech grad and tutor from Torrance, California. Pirro said investigators have found no evidence to indicate that a Secret Service agent who was struck by gunfire during the incident was shot by another member of law enforcement, but did not elaborate on that claim. The agent was not seriously injured because the shot was stopped by protective gear, Trump …

Cole Allen stays in jail in Trump assassination attempt case

Cole Allen stays in jail in Trump assassination attempt case

Published by Sam Flores

Cole Tomas Allen on Thursday told a judge he was waiving his right to challenge his detention in jail — for now — on charges of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last Saturday night. Allen’s waiver came a day after his defense team, in a court filing, sought his release on bond pending trial, and after prosecutors in their own filing laid out arguments for why he should remain in jail. “He’s conceding detention at this time,” Allen’s lawyer, Tezira Abe, told Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington on Thursday. Abe said Allen was reserving his right to challenge his detention at a future date. Abe told Upadhyaya that she and Allen’s other lawyer had difficulty meeting with the defendant over the past several days, but spoke to him on Thursday morning before the hearing. Allen, a 31-year-old California resident, is charged with trying to assassinate Trump, transportation of a firearm or ammunition in interstate commerce and discharge of a …

Warren and Durbin criticize Pirro over decision to halt Powell probe

Warren and Durbin criticize Pirro over decision to halt Powell probe

Published by Sam Flores

The Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is merely “temporarily paused,” a pair of Democratic senators said in a letter sent to the department Friday and obtained first by CNBC. “Your announcement leaves the door wide open for you to relaunch the criminal probe against Chair Powell — or future baseless investigations into Powell or other Fed Governors and a future Fed Chair — should it once again become politically expedient for you to do so,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in the letter addressed to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro. Pirro said in a statement Friday that the Fed’s inspector general had been asked to investigate cost overruns on an ongoing renovation project. Pirro didn’t specify who had made the request. Powell had last year asked the inspector general to look into the issue. Read more CNBC politics coverage “I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry,” Pirro said. “Note well, however, that I …

The threat to the Fed’s independence isn’t over

The threat to the Fed’s independence isn’t over

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., U.S., Aug. 12, 2025. Annabelle Gordon | Reuters President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the independence of the Federal Reserve. Friday’s dropping of a Justice Department probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell doesn’t fully resolve the threat, though it will clear a path to the confirmation of Trump’s nominee for chair, Kevin Warsh. “I think we would be foolish to conclude from this that the Fed is out of the woods,” said Lev Menand, a professor at Columbia Law School.  Warsh has long pledged to keep the Fed independent, including at his nomination hearing Tuesday. But it remains to be seen how he can hold up against a president who has said lowering interest rates was a litmus test for his nominee. Trump isn’t shy about telling normally independent parts of the federal government what to do. The Fed is one of the few holdouts that remain largely outside his control. …

DOJ ends Powell probe, boost for Trump’s Fed pick Warsh

DOJ ends Powell probe, boost for Trump’s Fed pick Warsh

Published by Sam Flores

The Department of Justice on Friday dropped its criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, removing a major hurdle to the Senate confirming President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace him. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, said in a post on X that she is abandoning the probe. Her announcement came three days after Warsh testified before the Senate Banking Committee on his nomination. Pirro had said just Wednesday that she was committed to continuing the criminal probe, which had been crippled by a federal judge’s ruling quashing subpoenas her office issued to the Fed. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and Banking Committee member, had an effective hold on the full Senate from voting to confirm Warsh as Fed chair unless the criminal investigation ended. Pirro, in her announcement that she is dropping the investigation, said that instead of her office continuing the probe, the Federal Reserve’s inspector general “has been asked this morning” to investigate cost overruns in the multibillion-dollar renovation …

Pirro’s losses in Fed matter should stay on the books, judge rules

DOJ won’t drop Fed probe, will appeal Powell subpoena block: Pirro

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Wednesday doubled down on her investigation of the Federal Reserve, even as the controversial probe endangers the confirmation of Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace central bank Chairman Jerome Powell. The criminal investigation centers on alleged cost overruns associated with the ongoing renovations of two historic Fed buildings in Washington. Powell has accused the Department of Justice of targeting him for refusing to obey Trump’s demand that the Fed sharply lower interest rates. The probe has raised concerns about the Fed’s independence from executive-branch interference — so much so that Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has vowed to block Warsh’s nomination until the DOJ drops it. At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Pirro said she would not back off. “The cost overruns on that building are well over a billion dollars. This investigation continues,” Pirro said. “I am in the legal lane. There are others who were in the political lane. I don’t intersect those two lanes,” she said. PIrro’s efforts hit a major snag last month when …