‘Just The Beginning’: Jeanine Pirro Shares What’s Next In Crackdown On Crime In DC

United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro of the District of Columbia told Fox News host Sean Hannity that deployment of the National Guard was only one step in efforts to address crime in the nation’s capital.

Trump announced the deployment of the National Guard to combat crime in the District of Columbia Monday morning, days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Edward Coristine, known by the moniker “Big Balls,” was severely injured when he intervened to prevent a carjacking. Pirro said that, ultimately, laws passed by the D.C. City Council need to be changed. (RELATED: Jonathan Turley Explains Why Trump’s DC Crackdown Can’t Be Stopped)

“Make no mistake, this is just the beginning. Today was liberation day, but we are now in the process of bringing to the attention of law-abiding citizens, not just in D.C., but throughout the country, we’re not going to tolerate crime that is out of control in the nation’s capital,” Pirro told Hannity. “This is the shining city on the hill that our forefathers talked about. This is the place where Ronald Reagan talked about looking up to and, in the end, it is an incredibly violent area.”

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“Whether crime is up or down, they want to pat themselves on the back and say, ‘It’s great, it’s not as bad as it used to be.’ It is horrific. The reason that that pressroom today was so packed was because those reporters in that room — and it was packed to the gills — they experience crime themselves, and some of the questions had to do with that very thing,” said Pirro.

“We’ve got an area where criminals are emboldened for a variety of reasons. They know, these young gangs, or, as they’re called, they’re crews, they know that if they are 14, 15, 16 or 17, they’re below the age of criminal responsibility unless they commit the crime of murder, rape one, armed robbery or burglary in the first degree. That means if you shoot someone and they don’t die, I don’t even get the case as a prosecutor.”

In a fact sheet released Monday, the White House detailed how much crime took place in the nation’s capital.

“There were 29,348 crimes reported in Washington, D.C. last year, including 3,469 violent offenses, 1,026 assaults with a dangerous weapon, 2,113 robberies and 5,139 motor vehicle thefts,” the fact sheet stated, while also saying D.C. had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country.

“Understand, I’m not just a federal prosecutor, I’m the local DA, so to speak, here for D.C.,” said Pirro, who served as a prosecutor in New York state in the 1980s. “All of these cases go to family court for the 14 through 17-year-olds, and those cases go to family court where the focus is rehabilitation, and they talk about ice cream socials and yoga.” (RELATED: DC Mayor Responds To Trump Crackdown By Calling For Statehood)

“And even if they are 19 and I get them in my court and I get a conviction, go on a bus with an illegal gun, a bus that’s full of people and a family, you take a gun and you shoot someone in the chest, we get the conviction, we take it all the way, the judge says, ‘You know, I’m gonna give you probation’ because the D.C. Council has given them that right, and so we’ve got to repeal these laws of the left-leaning D.C. Council, one of whom I indicted recently,” Pirro said.

Crime in the District of Columbia became a hot-button issue after Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, an intern for Republican Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas, was fatally shot June 30. Two employees of the Israeli Embassy were killed in a May shooting, while Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota was assaulted in her apartment in February 2023.

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