U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro unloaded on Sunday, blasting the city’s spiraling crime crisis and warning that violent killers are being left on the streets without consequences.
President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. on Aug. 11, and the White House told the Daily Caller the crackdown has already led to more than 1,000 arrests, including a Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang member. In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Pirro noted that the nation’s capital has become one of the most violent cities in the world, plagued by shootings, stabbings and brutal assaults while police fail to secure convictions.
“President Trump has literally changed the safety landscape in Washington, D.C. And I often wonder in answer to your question whether, you know, who is the person who says, you know, crime is low enough for us to handle,” Pirro told host Shannon Bream. “Who decides what is acceptable? If we go from intolerable to unacceptable, does that mean we should pat ourselves on the back and say, let’s just leave town? No, that’s not what President Trump is about here.”
Pirro pointed out that in just the last 20 months, 45 black teenagers were gunned down in D.C.
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“Washington was one of the most violent cities, not just in the United States, but in the world. So let’s not pussyfoot around this whole thing. We’ve got individuals who are being shot, stabbed, beaten and brutalized and arrests are not being made,” Pirro added. “In the last year and eight months, 45 black teenagers, minority teenagers, have been shot and killed with firearms. You know what the clearance rate is, Shannon? The clearance rate, meaning how many cases have been solved, is 29%.”
Pirro blasted claims that crime has tapered off in the city as flatly false.
“That means that 70% of the murderers of African American teens, all of them killed with guns, are still out on the street with their guns continuing to do what they do. And so for all those people who said, ‘Oh, crime is down, isn’t this great?’ That’s nonsense. What we need is to recognize that the first order of government is a protection of its people,” Pirro explained.
“And President Trump is willing to make sure that D.C. has the resources, that D.C. has the determination and all of us, both in the United States attorney’s office, are doing the best we can to put together the most solid cases. And so far, we’ve had 1,528 arrests, one hundred and 156 taken off the street, which means they can’t be used to shoot and kill other people,” the U.S. attorney added.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll revealed that 54% support Trump’s decision to declare a public safety emergency in Washington and call in the National Guard. Data from the D.C. Police Union revealed sharp declines during the first two weeks of the operation, with robberies falling 42% and carjackings dropping 85%.
The capital’s violent crime problem has dominated headlines in 2025 after the murder of 21-year-old intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym and the savage assault on government staffer Edward Coristine — known online as “Big Balls” — as he tried to intervene in a carjacking.
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