US Attorney for Washington Jeanine Pirro is desperately positioning herself as a contender for Attorney General, but her track record of prosecutorial failures is a serious liability — and Trump has noticed.
Pirro remains a "dark-horse candidate in MAGA circles to succeed Pam Bondi as the next attorney general," but her prospects are severely hampered by a pattern of high-profile legal defeats, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Trump is looking for both eagerness and effectiveness in pursuing his political enemies — and Pirro keeps coming up short on the latter, the report stated.
"Many of her marquee efforts—from pursuing [Federal Reserve Chair Jerome] Powell and Democratic lawmakers, to prosecuting protesters — have been rejected by judges and juries."
Trump has personally told advisers that some of her cases have flopped. While he has privately praised her tenacity, Pirro isn't currently a front-runner for the attorney general post, White House officials confirmed.
But Pirro remains undeterred. She's currently pursuing two high-profile investigations designed to demonstrate her value to a president who demands both loyalty and results.
The first target is
former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Prosecutors in Pirro's office are reviewing evidence and preparing witness interviews as part of an investigation into whether Cuomo lied to Congress about his COVID-19 actions. The inquiry stems from a House Republican referral accusing Cuomo of lying in 2024 during closed-door testimony related to nursing-home deaths.
Cuomo's legal team has already preemptively struck, characterizing the original referral as "meritless" and politically motivated. His lawyers argued that Cuomo testified truthfully when he said he didn't recall events from years earlier during a public health crisis.
The second target is Cassidy Hutchinson, according to the report. However, notably, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division — not Pirro's office — is leading an inquiry into the former Trump White House aide whose congressional testimony implicated Trump in the January 6 Capitol attack.
The fact that DOJ leadership assigned the Hutchinson investigation elsewhere suggests internal skepticism about Pirro's ability to handle sensitive cases, the Post reported — a clear signal of diminished confidence in her judgment and prosecutorial skill.


