President Trump said Thursday that a false statement about the 2020 election would name Fox News personality Janine Piro, who was part of a lawsuit against Washington's interim US lawyer, a network of interim US lawyers, hours after he was forced to draw his first option.
The former Republican District Attorney in Westchester County, New York, chose Pilro, who said he said hours ago that he would withdraw his appointment to permanently set up interim US lawyer Ed Martin under pressure from the Senate Republic.
“During her tenure, Janine was a powerful crusade for crime victims,” ​​the president wrote on social media to announce the pick, citing law enforcement background. He added, “She's in class herself.”
The move raised legal issues. Trump appears to rely on an active interpretation of his appointing power, and setting up Pillo could face legal challenges. A ruling that breaks her appointment could disrupt the criminal cases that sparked her authority, while supporting it would expand Trump's power to bypass the Senate.
Pilro, 73, has known the president for decades and has won his trust, providing a reliable line for one of the Department of Justice's most important federal prosecutors' offices.
Pillo has not worked in law enforcement since resigning as district attorney, including an unfortunate run with Hillary Clinton in the Senate before the 2006 election.
Pillo has several attributes that make her love for Trump. She appears on his television every day, defending him with the fierce intensity of her husky voice as a member of Fox's “Five” talk show. She took a personal risk to trumpet his election lies. And she is clearly willing to abandon her lucrative television career soon to save him from the embarrassing jam.
Pillo has a much larger name recognition than Martin, a relatively vague right-wing activist in Missouri.
However, she shares a similar trend in partisan combat.
Like Martin, she supported Trump's efforts to accurately vengeance against his political opponents, questioned the legality of his immigration policies and supported his agenda to a federal judge who spent months protesting the legitimacy of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s election for the 2020 presidential election.
Pillo was one of the Fox hosts named in a lawsuit filed by the Dominion Voting System for questioning the effectiveness of Fox's vote counting on broadcasts. Fox was forced to resolve the case and admit that the statements by Mr. Pilro and others were false.
She stubbornly defended Trump and offered him her support when he needed it the most. Especially on the day leading up to the 2016 election when outtakes from “Access Hollywood” threatened to overwhelm his campaign.
He has also been proven to be a trustworthy ally to her family. In 2021, in the final hours of his first term, Trump relented Piro's ex-husband and Trump's oltime lawyer, Albert J. Piro Jr.
By replacing one interim US lawyer with another, the Trump administration appears to be trying legal tactics that could essentially eliminate the need to submit a US lawyer pick to the Senate for confirmation.
However, the move risks that criminal defendants charged in Washington after May 20, when Martin's 120-day appointment expired. In a similar situation, the court found that the Department of Homeland Security had broken down certain actions taken during Trump's first term and illegally appointed Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II to lead US citizenship and immigration services.
The issue turns on federal laws that grant the president the authority to appoint him as interim US lawyers for 120 days when his position is vacant. Also, if the appointment expires, federal courts say it can appoint its own choice as interim top prosecutor until the Senate has officials charged.
The traditional understanding of that law is to give the president a one-off 120-day window, and then the court can appoint someone. Certainly, Trump is not limited to court choices. He was able to quickly fire anyone he didn't like.
However, 120 days later, he will be limited to naming a representation of the US lawyer under another law, the Vaccancies Reform Act. It would narrow his choice to someone who had already been identified in another position in his administration, or someone who had served as a Justice Department official at least 90 days ago before that position was vacant – effectively, someone who served in the Biden administration.
The administration has not publicly explained that it believes Trump has legal authority to appoint Pillo. But the most obvious theory is that since Martin leaves just before the 120th day is reached, his term of office never technically expires, so Trump can start over.
If the court upheld Pillo's appointment, Trump would have to change his U.S. lawyers every 119 days to select the person he likes without a Senate review, perhaps by swapping the same people for different districts.
Fox News said that Pillo quickly resigned from the network and called her “a longtime beloved host of Fox News media who has contributed significantly to our success during her 14-year tenure.”
Pillo, a native of Elmira, New York, attended Albany Law School and gained a reputation as an offensive, self-promotional prosecutor focusing on domestic violence cases.
Over the years, her name has appeared on a short list of various Trump administration appointments, including the Attorney General and the Supreme Court.
ABC News previously reported that Pillo is considering becoming a US lawyer in Washington.
Trump said Thursday that he will move Martin to a new role in the Justice Department, making him the assistant attorney general and pardon lawyer. The administration fired the former pardon lawyer amid a debate over whether to restore gun rights to actor Mel Gibson, who has been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
Martin will also become the director of the “Weapons Working Group.” It is said to be intended to eradicate “abuse of the criminal justice process” by local and federal law enforcement officials, but it appears to provide the president with a lever for accurate retaliation against his perceived enemy.
Michael M. Grimbaum Reports of contributions.
