Jeanine Pirro ‘abruptly’ told prosecutors to try to indict lawmakers in ‘illegal orders’ video: report

The DOJ has suffered a staff exodus and a string of failed cases under Trump

Jeanine Pirro, the longtime Trump ally and U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., reportedly abruptly told prosecutors to bring an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers over their involvement in a video reminding troops of their rights to refuse illegal orders.

The directive, reported by The New York Times, was part of an unusual process that clouded the failed case. As recently as mid-January, according to the paper, prosecutors in contact with lawyers for the lawmakers described the investigation in its early stages and did not state what law the representatives were accused of breaking.

The case ultimately floundered and a grand jury reportedly declined to bring an indictment last week, an unusual result in such a high-profile probe.

The Independent has contacted the Justice Department for comment. A spokesperson for Pirro’s office declined to comment.

Observers said the whole alleged back-and-forth appeared strange, given that high-profile investigations of sitting members of Congress usually rely on months of careful analysis and evidence-gathering before charges are sought.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro allegedly pushed prosecutors to rapidly bring an ultimately failed indictment against lawmakers who filmed a video critical of the administration, weeks after investigators described the investigation as in its early stages (Getty)

“That is irregular,” Kristy Parker, counsel at Protect Democracy and a former federal prosecutor, told The New Republic. “Typically, when someone is the target of a criminal investigation, it’s unusual to dissemble with the target’s lawyer about what the charges might be that close to an indictment. It’s not how federal prosecutors are supposed to conduct themselves.”

In addition to the alleged sudden change-up in strategy, the case also reportedly featured Pirro’s office turning to two attorneys with minimal DOJ prosecutorial experience.

Officials Steven Vandervelden and Carlton Davis helped bring the indictment, Bloomberg Law reports.

Vandervelden has no prior DOJ background, though he served alongside Pirro as a local prosecutor in Westchester County, New York, while Pirro was district attorney there, according to the outlet.

He reportedly maintained an active photography studio as the attempted case was playing out, Bloomberg Law reported.

Lawmakers named in the investigation have been sharply critical, arguing the case was a wrongful partisan exercise to target critics of the president.

“It wasn’t enough for Pete Hegseth to censure me and threaten to demote me, now it appears they tried to have me charged with a crime — all because of something I said that they didn’t like,” Sen. Mark Kelly said last week. “That’s not the way things work in America.”

The Trump administration has been marked by failures in court and chaos within the ranks of top federal prosecutors.

Since Trump took office, more than 5,000 DOJ officials have reportedly quit, taken buyouts, or been fired, according to a monitoring group.

The Department of Justice has suffered staff shake-ups and failures to secure indictments in recent months (AP)

Pirro’s office alone at one point had lost at least 90 prosecutors, the Washington Post reported.

In recent weeks, scores of prosecutors have left a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, reportedly in part out of frustration over the Trump administration’s decision not to launch a civil rights investigation into an ICE agent fatally shooting Minneapolis protester Renee Good.

Last year, in the case of a protester who threw a sandwich at a federal officer, Pirro’s office failed to secure a grand jury indictment and was not able to convict on a misdemeanor assault charge.