A new report indicates that former Fox News star and current U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro declined President Donald Trump’s invitation to serve under FBI Director Kash Patel.
The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush reported that “Late last year, after Mr. Trump tapped Kash Patel, a podcaster with scant law enforcement experience, to be F.B.I. director, his aides approached Ms. Pirro about becoming his deputy,” citing two sources familiar with the exchange.
But Pirro, whose legal experience includes serving as a prosecutor and judge in New York’s Westchester County, turned down the role, even though she had “tried and failed to secure a top Justice Department job” during Trump’s first term.
The reason, according to Thrush, was Pirro had “no interest” in working for Patel.
The job ultimately went to former Fox News contributor and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey will step into the Trump administration as co-deputy director of the FBI.
Bailey, who stepped down from his role as attorney general effective September 8, will hold his newly-created position alongside current FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and serve under FBI Director Kash Patel.
Pirro went on to take over the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, even though she “has not run a prosecutor’s office in the iPhone era,” Thrush wrote, adding that Pirro has not made it known whether she “hopes to ascend” to a bigger role in the DOJ.
“Like many big-shot outsiders who take on medium-shot government jobs, Ms. Pirro has been aggravated by red tape, particularly requirements that she obtain approval of other officials before taking actions she would have done unilaterally as Westchester County district attorney two decades ago,” Thrush wrote.
Pirro’s focus so far has been on stamping out violent crime in Washington, D.C.
On Monday, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced Nathalie Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested in the District of Columbia on Saturday in connection with making a series of threats on social media in which she threatened to kill President Trump.
“Hi everyone, it’s Judge Jeanine. I just wanted to let you know here from the United States Attorney’s Office in D.C. that an individual by the name of Nathalie Rose Jones is now in custody, charged with two federal crimes for knowingly and willfully threatening to take the life of the President of the United States,” Pirro said in a clip she released on social media.
“She did come from New York to Washington, D.C. and she has been threatening and calling for the removal of the president and even worse as she got to D.C. Her threats were on Facebook and Instagram and she continued to call the president a terrorist and was working to have him eliminated. She is now in custody. She will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Make no mistake about that,” Pirro said with a hint of a smile.
Good call Judge