Jeanine Pirro, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, said President Donald Trump’s decision to place the D.C. police under temporary federal control and deploy the National Guard to the nation’s capital was a first step toward cracking down on crime.
"We are now in the process of bringing to the attention of law-abiding citizens, not just in D.C., but throughout the country, that we're not going to tolerate crime that is out of control in the nation's capital," she said Monday on "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."
Pirro, a former Fox News co-host, joined Trump and other top administration officials at the White House briefing room when the commander-in-chief announced the changes and a surge in federal law enforcement.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that he wants to make the federal district one of the safest cities in the world and called for teenagers as young as 14 to be charged as adults.
The comments came after ex-DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed "Big Balls," was allegedly assaulted during an attempted carjacking.
Two 15-year-olds have since been arrested and face charges of unarmed carjacking in connection with the Coristine attack, according to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
DC US ATTORNEY SAYS ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’ AS YOUTH CRIME PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON NATION’S CAPITAL
Pirro told Fox News host Sean Hannity that D.C.’s juvenile justice system is focused more on rehabilitation than accountability.
"We've got an area where criminals are emboldened for a variety of reasons," said the top federal prosecutor.
"They know these young gangs – or, as they're called here, crews – they know that if they're 14, 15, 16, or 17, they are below the age of criminal responsibility unless they commit the crime of murder, rape one, armed robbery or burglary in the first degree. And that means if you shoot someone and they don't die, I don't even get the case as a prosecutor."
She added: "Unless and until we get our hands on them and unless and until we have the ability to punish them, they are emboldened and they are laughing at us."
MPD reported a 7% decrease in overall crime and a 26% reduction in violent crime in Washington, D.C., as of Monday, compared to the same period in 2024.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser cited a decline in crime incidents since the COVID-19 pandemic, after a spike in 2023, and noted that the city is at a 30-year low in violent crime.
She called the deployment of National Guard troops "unsettling and unprecedented" but pledged to work with federal officials to ensure residents are safe.
