Jeanine Pirro, serving as President Donald Trump's top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., is facing mounting pressure from the president's own allies following a series of courtroom setbacks — the most recent being her office's botched handling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool "vandalism" case.

According to a Politico report published Tuesday, frustration with Pirro predates the Reflecting Pool controversy. Key Trump loyalists have been calling for her removal for some time, citing a pattern of failures when her office has attempted to translate the president's personal grievances into criminal prosecutions. The repeated inability to secure grand jury indictments is notable because grand juries function as an independent screening mechanism in the federal system, and prosecutors who repeatedly fail to clear that threshold often face questions about the legal strength of the cases they bring.

Among the most notable setbacks, Pirro's office failed to secure grand jury indictments against six sitting Democratic lawmakers over their comments regarding military members refusing unlawful orders. A separate investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's spending also collapsed after a federal judge accused Pirro of pursuing a politically motivated agenda.

Grand juries have additionally rejected cases connected to anti-ICE protests. In perhaps the most widely covered incident, a grand jury declined to indict a man accused of throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent, as previously reported.

Beyond the courtroom losses, some Trump allies have criticized Pirro on broader grounds. Neil McCabe, a former aide to Trump's earlier acting D.C. prosecutor Ed Martin, argued that Pirro has not been sufficiently aggressive. Speaking on the pro-Trump media outlet Real America's Voice, McCabe said: "If Ed Martin was the U.S. attorney in D.C., people would be in cuffs." Republicans had previously pressured Trump into withdrawing Martin's nomination for the permanent role due to concerns about his qualifications.

Jonathan Gross, another Martin associate who helped represent defendants charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, expressed frustration that Pirro has not done more to revisit cases against the rioters. In an email to Politico, Gross stated: "To date, there has been no public statement about these abuses from her office and no investigation into how this occurred or who gave the orders." He added: "This was an assault on our justice system that demands accountability." The tension highlights competing factions within Trump's coalition: those who want the D.C. office to maximize prosecutions of political adversaries, and institutional voices concerned about overreach that could further alienate the judiciary.

Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime Trump ally, was appointed to the D.C. prosecutor position amid the president's broader effort to reshape the federal justice system in the nation's capital. Before her television career, Pirro served as a county-level prosecutor and elected district attorney in Westchester County, New York, but had no prior experience as a federal prosecutor. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia is one of the most consequential federal prosecutorial offices in the country, handling both local federal crimes and cases of national significance — a uniquely demanding portfolio that makes the office a perennial flashpoint in debates over the politicization of law enforcement.