CNN
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Barely a week into her tenure as Washington, DC’s top federal prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro faced an urgent test – overseeing the investigation into the murders of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the city’s Jewish museum.
Pirro’s response to the young couples’ murder was under the microscope, as it was her first opportunity to enter the public eye no longer as a Fox News host but as a high-ranking government official leading the charge to bring justice after a public assassination.
Her quick command over the investigation garnered high marks from Justice Department officials. Prosecutors who work for her felt cautiously encouraged.
But she’s also getting the benefit for who she is not: Ed Martin, her norm-busting, social media free-wheeling predecessor who drew attention for his email screeds to employees and letters threatening to investigate Democratic members of Congress and liberal groups.
Like Martin, Pirro enjoys a close relationship with President Donald Trump and is expected to deviate little from the top priorities Martin was pursuing like immigration enforcement and reducing crime in the nation’s capital. But top officials at the Justice Department found Martin’s antics problematic at times.
Pirro’s marked difference in style, at least so far, has been welcome to officials at DOJ headquarters and prosecutors who work for her, many of whom are still exhausted by Martin’s tumultuous tenure.
“Whew, thank goodness,” one official remarked when asked about Pirro’s handling of the murder investigation.
A longtime media personality, the interim US attorney had so far only spoken through social media posts and press releases. One of the posts – a video on X criticizing the fact that her prosecutors had to join a paid “water club” to drink from a water cooler at the office – was particularly popular, officials inside the office told CNN, and people working there appreciated the notion despite feeling slightly annoyed by her method of delivery.
But her appearance Wednesday was far more traditional, as she and Attorney General Pam Bondi arrived at the Capital Jewish Museum soon after a man fired point blank at 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, killing both.
Pirro’s decision to go to the scene of the shooting Wednesday night with little publicity or fanfare earned her respect inside the US attorney’s office, one person told CNN. She stood silently behind the attorney general as she addressed reporters, trying to maintain her composure but visibly shaken by the grisly murder at the museum.
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has previously been criticized by Republicans for crime in the city, has been relieved by the how smoothly the shared investigation has been conducted, and that Pirro, Bondi and Bowser found a mutual respect for the work each was doing under the immense pressure they faced, sources with knowledge of their relationship told CNN.
Two young embassy staffers’ love story, tragically cut short
“A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag,” Pirro said Thursday from a lectern in her office.
She continued; “And I am not unaware, based upon my own background, of the repercussions of this kind of case. This is the kind of case that picks at old sores and old scars, because these kinds of cases remind us of what has happened in the past that we can never and must never forget.”
A spokesperson from the DC US Attorney’s Office said, “Judge Pirro has a history of fighting crime for over three decades and will continue to utilize her expertise in implementing the highest standards to assess and prosecute cases. She expects nothing less from her staff. Her job right now is to bring Law And Order to DC and make it safe for everyone.”
“As for this case, it is of the greatest import that the evidence collected be assessed and analyzed in a sterile courtroom setting and not in a publicized political setting,” the spokesperson added.
The murder investigation is still in its initial phase, and department officials, including Pirro, have said they are looking to bring potential hate crime or terrorism charges against the suspect, Elias Rodriguez.
But even if the case went to trial with the charges filed Thursday, Rodriguez could face the death penalty.
If the Justice Department does choose to seek capital punishment, it will be a major legal and political test for Pirro and the US Attorney’s Office, putting the case on a long path to trial that would need to be carefully handled in a largely liberal-leaning city.
The federal court in the District of Columbia hasn’t had a death penalty trial since 2003, when Rodney L. Moore was convicted of 10 murders and Kevin L. Gray was convicted of 19 murders. The jurors said they couldn’t agree unanimously on sentences of death for the two men rather than life imprisonment.
People close to the office felt encouraged by the fact that an experienced national security prosecutor, Jeffrey Nestler, was assigned to handle the possible death penalty case and was at the scene of the crime by midnight Wednesday to oversee evidence collection. Several other top prosecutors within the office had either left the Justice Department since the Trump presidency began or had been fired or demoted during Martin’s tenure.
Rodriguez has not entered a formal plea in court.
