United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro has emerged as the face of the Trump administration’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., transforming how justice is served in the nation’s capital in less than two weeks since the federal effort began.
From directing prosecutors to pursue the harshest possible charges to limiting which firearm cases will be brought to court, Pirro is reshaping the scope of criminal law enforcement in ways that extend well beyond the temporary federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department. She is also leading a sensitive inquiry into whether the city’s police department manipulated crime data, a flashpoint that President Donald Trump and the local police union have seized on to argue the city’s crime problem is worse than officials admit.
Her actions come as the Justice Department’s broader effort, overseen by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has resulted in more than 550 arrests and the seizure of 76 illegal firearms from Aug. 7 to Aug. 19.
Bondi this week announced $500 rewards for tips leading to arrests, while the White House touted the capture of an MS-13 gang member as evidence of what press secretary Karoline Leavitt called “extraordinary results.”
We have now made over 550 arrests in Washington, DC and have taken 76 illegal firearms off the streets—saving lives.
You can help—@USMarshalsHQ is offering a reward for any information leading to an arrest. Together, we will make DC safe again! pic.twitter.com/8SucuPuhLz
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 20, 2025
The D.C. Police Union says robberies, carjackings, and violent crime have plummeted since federal agents hit the streets. But Democratic officials, including Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, claim the presence of soldiers and federal agents undermines public trust and threatens civil liberties.
Public support for Trump’s Washington law enforcement project is split. While the nation is divided on whether it backs the move, according to the left-of-center polling firm Data for Progress, an overwhelming majority of residents in the heavily liberal District disagree. However, according to a Gallup poll from October, a broader public view of crime across the country shows that most U.S. residents feel crime in the nation is an “extremely” or “very serious” problem.
Despite the split views of Trump’s effort, Pirro’s prosecutorial agenda, just over a week into Trump’s federal police takeover, is already redrawing the legal map and leading to a safer city.
Maximize criminal charges for street arrests
Pirro has instructed her prosecutors to maximize charges for those arrested in the crackdown, signaling a more aggressive approach than her predecessors.
“In line with President Trump’s directive to make D.C. safe, U.S. Attorney Pirro has made it clear that the old way of doing things is unacceptable,” said Tim Lauer, a spokesman for her office. “She directed her staff to charge the highest crime that is supported by the law and the evidence.”
The directive comes as hundreds of federal agents have been thrust into patrol duty. Pirro’s office, which handles both local prosecutions in Superior Court and federal cases in District Court, now intends to move more defendants into federal court, where sentences are stiffer.
Pirro has acknowledged her office is short by about 60 prosecutors, following turnover under her predecessor. Still, prosecutors are now available 24/7 to field questions from officers in the field, and the U.S. Marshals Service has offered cash rewards to encourage tips leading to arrests.
Typically, prosecutors in Washington drop many cases for various reasons, sometimes citing a lack of evidence, leading to criticism from conservatives who say that posture is just one of the many soft-on-crime patterns contributing to lawlessness. Pirro’s new approach signals that her office will err on the side of filing felonies and letting courts sort them out.
Part of the shift in priorities involves a more direct focus on immigration-related arrests across the District. The Washington Examiner reported Friday that over a third of arrests from the first week of the operation were immigration-related. That figure remained accurate this week after officials reported that 224 out of 550 arrests were of alleged undocumented immigrants.
Investigating whether crime data was manipulated
The DOJ is also undertaking a potentially eye-opening investigation into whether, or to what extent, the MPD manipulated crime statistics following allegations by police union leaders and Trump himself.
According to NBC4 Washington, Pirro is leading the probe. A spokesperson for Pirro’s office declined to comment, and the Washington Examiner has contacted MPD for a response.
The burgeoning investigation was revealed Tuesday, a day after Trump suggested on Truth Social that MPD inflated data to project a “false illusion of safety.”
His post came weeks after a July report revealed MPD 3rd District Commander Michael Pulliam was placed on administrative leave in May over accusations that he doctored crime numbers. Pulliam has denied the allegations, while Bowser has said the issue was confined to one police district.
Union Chairman Gregg Pemberton argues the problem is broader, saying commanders sometimes instruct officers to downgrade offenses. “Instead of taking a report for a shooting or a carjacking, they will order that officer to take a report for a theft or an injured person,” he told NBC4.
MPD’s database also excludes aggravated assaults and certain felony assaults from its violent crime metrics, even if victims suffer serious injuries. As of this week, the department reports violent crime is down 27% year-to-date, but union leaders such as Pemberton call the drop implausibly steep compared to 2023, which saw the highest homicide rate since 1997.
“There’s a, potentially, a drop from where we were in 2023,” Pemberton said on NBC News. “I think that there’s a possibility that crime has come down. But the department is reporting that in 2024, crime went down 35% — violent crime — and another 25% through August of this year. That is preposterous. … We’re out on the street. We know the calls we’re responding to.”
No more charges for simple possession of long guns
At the same time, Pirro has moved to narrow the scope of firearm prosecutions. She instructed federal prosecutors this week not to pursue separate felony charges for possession of registered rifles or shotguns in the District, citing the Supreme Court’s rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Pirro insisted the policy still allows charges against felons caught with firearms, but bars stacking an additional charge for possessing a registered long gun. “This unprecedented number of gun case prosecutions in both federal and local court is only done consistent with the constitution and the laws of the land,” she said.
District authorities recovered nearly 100 rifles and three dozen shotguns in 2023. However, some local critics argue Pirro’s policy change could encourage more long-gun carrying in neighborhoods already plagued by shootings.
“We already deal with more guns on our blocks than anywhere else. Now they’re telling people it’s fine to carry long rifles around? That doesn’t make me feel safer,” Marcus Hill, a lifelong Southeast resident, told the Washington Informer this week.
Pirro says ‘minorities’ are most victimized by D.C. crime
Pirro has also emphasized the racial disparities in D.C. crime, framing her approach as one aimed at protecting minority communities most affected by violence.
During an interview on Monday on Fox & Friends, Pirro said, “The saddest part about all of this is no one is talking about the impact on the minority community … 45 teenagers killed in the last year and eight months, every one of them African American, every one of them black.”
According to MPD data, firearms are used in 77% of homicides, with knives a distant second at 14%. Figures from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform show that 96.8% of homicide suspects are black, and more than 70% are between 18 and 34 years old. Nearly 90% of homicide victims are male, of whom 94% are black.
Pirro said authorities’ failure to solve many cases compounds the problem, with roughly 70% of homicides going unsolved. “A murder is no less a murder if you’re 15 years old,” she said.
Push for tougher prosecutions of juvenile offenders
Pirro is also pressing for sweeping reforms to how the District prosecutes violent crimes committed by minors, aligning herself with Trump’s call to toughen sentencing laws for juvenile offenders.
Under current law, D.C. does not allow children younger than 15 to be prosecuted as adults in most cases. Trump has also denounced that limit, writing on Truth Social earlier this month that “The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14.”
Pirro echoed the president’s stance, telling CNN she knows “evil when I see it, no matter the age – and the violence in D.C. committed by young people belongs in criminal court, not family court.”
Part of the impetus for Trump’s D.C. law enforcement crackdown stemmed from the attack against 19-year-old Edward Coristine, a staffer for the Department of Government Efficiency who was attacked by a group of juveniles earlier this month. Although two juveniles remain in custody and are slated for legal proceedings in family court, their confinement remains the exception, not the rule, that officials such as Pirro have said needs major changes.
TRUMP NEEDS KEY REFORMS TO CURB JUVENILE CRIME IN DC, EXPERTS SAY
Pirro has specifically targeted the 2018 Youth Rehabilitation Act, which was enacted to keep young defendants separate from older, more seasoned criminals, and the 2022 Second Chance Amendment Act, which she said permits the “stunning erasure of criminal convictions.”
“If you lose your life because of a 16-year-old, that doesn’t mean it’s any less painful,” Pirro said this week.