The Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 5, 2025, voted 12–10 to report the nomination of Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after a contentious markup in which several senators criticized Pirro's public statements about January 6, prosecutorial ethics and the 2020 election.

The committee recorded 12 votes in favor and 10 opposed on the roll call to report Pirro to the full Senate. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley presided over the markup. Ranking Member Dick Durbin and multiple Democratic senators urged further public scrutiny of Pirro's record before final confirmation.

Why it matters: The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia oversees the largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the country and handles thousands of criminal and civil matters. A change in leadership for that office can affect prosecutions that arise from investigations in the district and shape priorities for federal law enforcement there.

Durbin said Pirro’s public record raised “serious concerns,” including statements he summarized as calling some January 6 defendants “hostages” and advocating criminal probes of prosecutors who handled January 6 cases. “Her record makes it clear that she’ll prioritize President Trump’s agenda, not the rule of law,” Durbin said. Senator Mazie Hirono said Pirro “does not have the professional qualifications or the prosecutorial ethics to serve as a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.”

Supporters placed statements into the record from groups such as the National Fraternal Order of Police praising Pirro’s work on domestic-violence prosecutions; the committee clerk entered that statement without objection. Chairman Grassley said he would work with the ranking member to allocate sufficient time for debate in future markups and noted precedent for the committee ending debate by majority vote, a procedural point that helped frame the earlier dispute at last week’s meeting.

The committee also voted by voice to approve several U.S. attorney nominees en bloc (Kurt Alme, Kurt Wall, Leslie Murphy, Eric Siebert, Nicholas Chase and Daniel Rosen); some senators requested to be recorded as opposed on one or more of those en bloc nominees. Senator Durbin and other Democrats spoke at length about Pirro’s public commentary, including her past remarks on the 2020 presidential election and media appearances, and about the October 2025 departures or reassignments that occurred in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia while she served in an interim role.

Discussion vs. action: The transcript shows extended discussion and multiple members placing statements on the record; the formal action was the roll call to report the Pirro nomination to the full Senate (12–10) and the en bloc voice vote to advance the other listed U.S. attorney nominees. The committee did not confirm Pirro; the vote reported her nomination to the Senate floor for final consideration.

Next steps: The nomination, now reported favorably by committee, proceeds to the full Senate for further consideration and a final confirmation vote if scheduled.