Jeanine Pirro is doing the work needed in DC!

OK So now we're a week into her tiem as Washington, DC’s top federal prosecutor and Jeanine Pirro alreadt is facing an urgent test overseeing the investigation into the murders of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the city’s Jewish museum. The response to the young couples’ murder was under the microscope, as it was her first opportunity to enter the public eye no longer as a Fox News host but as a high-ranking government official leading the charge to bring justice after a public assassination. And not to any shock here her quick command over the investigation garnered high marks from Justice Department officials. Prosecutors who work for her felt cautiously encouraged.

But she’s also getting the benefit for who she is not: Ed Martin, her norm-busting, social media free-wheeling predecessor who drew attention for his email screeds to employees and letters threatening to investigate Democratic members of Congress and liberal groups. Like Martin, Pirro enjoys a close relationship with President Donald Trump and is expected to deviate little from the top priorities Martin was pursuing like immigration enforcement and reducing crime in the nation’s capital. But top officials at the Justice Department found Martin’s antics problematic at times.

So so far the way she handles things has been a welcome to officials at DOJ headquarters and prosecutors who work for her, many of whom are still exhausted by Martin’s tumultuous tenure. “Whew, thank goodness,” one official remarked when asked about Pirro’s handling of the murder investigation. A longtime media personality, the interim US attorney had so far only spoken through social media posts and press releases. One of the posts a video on X criticizing the fact that her prosecutors had to join a paid “water club” to drink from a water cooler at the office was particularly popular, officials inside the office told CNN, and people working there appreciated the notion despite feeling slightly annoyed by her method of delivery.

Her appearance on Wednesday was far more traditional, as she and Attorney General Pam Bondi arrived at the Capital Jewish Museum soon after a man fired point blank at 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim and her boyfriend, 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, killing both. Pirro’s decision to go to the scene of the shooting Wednesday night with little publicity or fanfare earned her respect inside the US attorney’s office, one person told CNN. She stood silently behind the attorney general as she addressed reporters, trying to maintain her composure but visibly shaken by the grisly murder at the museum.

The Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has previously been criticized by Republicans for crime in the city, and her role in the cover up on J/6 where Nancy Pelosi and her denied help in the capitol riot. She's someone who needs to be investigated as far as many on the right think and she while that's her history she has been relieved by the how smoothly the shared investigation has been conducted, and that Pirro, Bondi and Bowser found a mutual respect for the work each was doing under the immense pressure they faced, sources with knowledge of their relationship told CNN reporters. “A young couple at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag,” Pirro said Thursday from a lectern in her office. She continued; “And I am not unaware, based upon my own background, of the repercussions of this kind of case.

This is the kind of case that picks at old sores and old scars, because these kinds of cases remind us of what has happened in the past that we can never and must never forget.” A spokesperson from the DC US Attorney’s Office said, While Elias Rodriguez has not entered a formal plea in court “Judge Pirro has a history of fighting crime for over three decades and will continue to utilize her expertise in implementing the highest standards to assess and prosecute cases. She expects nothing less from her staff. Her job right now is to bring Law And Order to DC and make it safe for everyone.” “As for this case, it is of the greatest import that the evidence collected be assessed and analyzed in a sterile courtroom setting and not in a publicized political setting,” the spokesperson added.

The murder investigation is still in its initial phase, and department officials, including Pirro, have said they are looking to bring potential hate crime or terrorism charges against the suspect, Elias Rodriguez. But even if the case went to trial with the charges filed Thursday, Rodriguez could face the death penalty. If the Justice Department does choose to seek capital punishment, it will be a major legal and political test for Pirro and the US Attorney’s Office, putting the case on a long path to trial that would need to be carefully handled in a largely liberal-leaning city. 

The federal court in the District of Columbia hasn’t had a death penalty trial since 2003, when Rodney L. Moore was convicted of 10 murders and Kevin L. Gray was convicted of 19 murders. The jurors said they couldn’t agree unanimously on sentences of death for the two men rather than life imprisonment. People close to the office felt encouraged by the fact that an experienced national security prosecutor, Jeffrey Nestler, was assigned to handle the possible death penalty case and was at the scene of the crime by midnight Wednesday to oversee evidence collection. 

Several other top prosecutors within the office had either left the Justice Department since the Trump presidency began or had been fired or demoted during Martin’s tenure.

Senator Chris Van Hollen May Have Violated Law once Used Against Michael Flynn

So now it's looking like Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s unexpected trip to El Salvador to advocate for the release of deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia you know the MS-13 career criminal deported back to the home he is a citizen off is well drawing scrutiny from critics who argue the Maryland Democrat may have broken a centuries-old law prohibiting unauthorized diplomacy. You see the Logan Act, named after Pennsylvania Senator George Logan, prohibits private citizens from engaging with foreign governments “with intent to influence their measures in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.” This Violation can result in fines or imprisonment up to three years. Should there be charges, they would be filed by the Justice Department at Attorney General Pam Bondi’s direction.

The law was enacted in 1799 after Logan met with French diplomat Charles de Talleyrand, without official authorization, following France’s rejection of overtures from President John Adams. Logan attempted to ease tensions in the “Quasi War,” partly through correspondence from then–Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Several high ranking and very well known conservatives have been since questioning whether Van Hollen’s actions violated the Logan Act. “Why hasn’t this U.S. senator been arrested for violation of the Logan Act? It’s illegal to conduct your own foreign policy,” longtime GOP activist and consultant Roger Stone tweeted. Also he did this on TAX PAYER MONEY? So On Friday, WMAL host Vince Coglianese read the Logan Act statute aloud and asked his audience whether Van Hollen had violated the code outlined. “Is Chris Van Hollen violating the Logan Act?” Coglianese said. “Because this is what they accused General [Michael] Flynn of doing the incoming national security advisor who was merely having conversations with foreign diplomats [after] people had chosen President Donald Trump.”

“The Logan Act says any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with the intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than three years or both,” Coglianese told his listeners.

Democrats previously invoked the Logan Act in response to Michael Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak prior to Donald Trump’s first inauguration—a controversy that ultimately triggered an FBI investigation and derailed Flynn’s public-service career. Notes from former FBI agent Peter Strzok included the line “VP: Logan Act,” suggesting that then–Vice President Joe Biden proposed using the statute against Flynn. However, then–FBI Director James Comey reportedly remarked that Flynn’s communications with Kislyak appeared “legit.” Fox News contributor Byron York responded to a question on X by stating that he had consistently argued during the Flynn controversy that the Logan Act is a “dead letter.”

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) has sent a letter to Senate Ethics Committee Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.), requesting an investigation into possible violations, according to the New York Post. “Mr. Abrego-Garcia is essentially an enemy combatant in the ongoing invasion of the United States by transnational gangs,” AAF President Thomas Jones wrote to the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). “Despite the overwhelming evidence, Senator Van Hollen decided that he would use Senate funds to fly to El Salvador and advocate for an enemy of the United States.”

Jones added: “Van Hollen was in El Salvador meeting with leaders of the Salvadorian government to attempt to secure Mr. Garcia’s release. It is hard to imagine a more hostile intrusion into U.S. foreign policy than attempting to smuggle a foreign enemy combatant into the United States.” The Trump administration presented courtroom evidence proving that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. President Trump has declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and its members transnational combatants.