Pirro's D.C. Office Faces Unusual Rate of Trial Losses

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed prosecutor for the District of Columbia, is facing an unprecedented wave of courtroom failures, with her office securing convictions in only a fraction of recent federal jury trials. The pattern of mistrials and acquittals has alarmed legal experts and drawn sharp criticism from President Donald Trump, particularly following the collapse of a high-profile case against an alleged MS-13 leader.

The most prominent example is the prosecution of Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Rodas Ramirez, accused of leading MS-13 operations and ordering murders from a Salvadoran jail cell. After a first trial in December 2025 ended in a mistrial, a second attempt in April 2026 also resulted in a deadlocked jury. Judge Royce Lamberth, a nearly 40-year veteran of the federal bench, remarked, "I've done this a long time and haven't seen one quite like this one." The two defendants are scheduled to face a third trial in September 2026.

This case is part of a broader trend. Before the April retrial, Pirro's office had secured convictions in only four of eight federal cases tried before Washington juries since January 2026. In the nearly dozen cases that...