Judges Keep Throwing Out Pirro’s Gun Cases. Her Office Is Charging Unconstitutional Searches and Losing.

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Jeanine Pirro was a Fox News host. Now she runs the most important US Attorney’s Office in the country. Her office is losing gun case after gun case because the arrests that produced the guns violated the Fourth Amendment. Judges are dismissing the charges. Experienced prosecutors who would have screened these cases out are gone — fired under Ed Martin or walked out since Trump took office. The DOJ quietly dropped its requirement that new line prosecutors have at least one year of courtroom experience. The result is an office drowning in 11,000 cases, half-staffed, charging everything police bring in, and getting humiliated in court.

What’s Happening in Court

Federal judges on the DC District Court — the trial court for DC — have repeatedly found “fatal flaws” in gun possession cases brought by Pirro’s office. The flaw is almost always the same: the gun was discovered during a police search that didn’t meet constitutional standards. The Fourth Amendment requires probable cause or reasonable suspicion for a search. These cases didn’t have it. The government charged them anyway. The judges threw them out.

Multiple defense attorneys in Washington told CNN the cases should never have been charged. Under previous administrations, prosecutors had supervisors who focused on training newer attorneys. The section handling gun cases used a data-driven approach to screen for exactly this kind of problem — whether the stop was clean, whether the search would hold up, whether the case was actually winnable. That infrastructure is gone.

When CNN asked Pirro about the losses, she deflected. “Look, crime is at a historic low,” she said. “You can’t criticize this office.” A spokesperson added later: “We are willing to take cases that are close calls to protect the community, even though that does not mean a judge will always agree with us.” These were not close calls. These were unconstitutional searches that experienced prosecutors would have flagged at intake. But those prosecutors don’t work there anymore.

What It Costs

Every bad case that gets briefed, argued, and dismissed is time a prosecutor could have spent on a winnable case. Former prosecutors from the office told CNN the losses have compounded the staffing crisis: “If you’re spending an inordinate amount of time briefing and preparing, it’s one less opportunity for you to bring another case that does have merit.”

Worse, the office has lost credibility with the bench. Several people close to the DC District Court told CNN that the string of losses has damaged the relationship between Pirro’s prosecutors and the judges who hear their cases. That credibility matters. Prosecutors ask judges for warrants, for detention orders, for extensions. When a judge starts doubting whether your office vetted the case before filing it, everything gets harder.

Pirro says she has started training law enforcement on constitutional search procedures. She lectured officers in the Anacostia neighborhood about proper stops. She used body camera footage to show FBI recruits how to do it right. That training happened as recently as March. The fact that it’s needed tells you everything about how the previous system — the one staffed with experienced prosecutors who caught these problems before they reached a courtroom — was allowed to collapse.

And Then There’s the Fed Investigation

While Pirro’s office was losing gun cases, she was also pursuing a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. On March 13, Pirro gave a public statement about the investigation after a federal judge quashed her grand jury subpoenas. The judge ruled that Pirro’s office needed to show something “akin to probable cause” before compelling the Fed to turn over documents. Pirro was furious: “Jerome Powell today is now bathed in immunity, preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve.”

This is the same Jeanine Pirro who was named in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News for broadcasting false claims about the 2020 election. Fox settled for $787.5 million and admitted the statements were false. This is the same Pirro whose ex-husband — convicted on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion — received a last-minute pardon from Trump with less than an hour left in his first term. This is the person running federal prosecution in the nation’s capital.

She can’t win gun cases. She can’t get past a judge to investigate the Fed chair. She filed to erase every remaining Jan 6 conviction. But crime is at a historic low, and you can’t criticize the office.

Sources

• CNN: Federal judges repeatedly dismissed gun cases from Pirro’s office due to unconstitutional police searches; major crimes team shrunk to half; caseload of 11,000; DOJ dropped 1-year courtroom experience requirement; Pirro: “You can’t criticize this office”; Abbe Smith quote; credibility damage with bench.
• U.S. Attorney Pirro press conference (YouTube): March 13, 2026 — Pirro’s statement on Federal Reserve investigation; judge quashed grand jury subpoenas; “Jerome Powell today is now bathed in immunity”; Pirro vowed to appeal.
• ABC News: Trump appointed Pirro interim US Attorney for DC in May 2025; Senate confirmed August 2025; Ed Martin predecessor; Pirro was named in Dominion defamation suit; ex-husband Albert Pirro pardoned by Trump on last day of first term.
• DOJ: Pirro’s official biography; Senate confirmed August 2025; served as interim since May 2025.

Related coverage

• EOH: Pirro moves to erase every remaining Jan 6 conviction
• EOH: DOJ weaponization in the second term