Jeanine Pirro’s Office Failing to Get Convictions in an ‘Increasingly Alarming Number’ of Cases, CNN Reports

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office is failing to secure convictions in an “increasingly alarming number” of federal cases in Washington, D.C., according to a new CNN report detailing a string of mistrials and acquittals.

The network reported Monday that Pirro’s office has struggled to persuade federal juries even in violent crime cases prosecutors believed presented relatively straightforward evidence, an unusual losing streak that has alarmed current and former members of Washington’s legal community.

The article presented the problems as most stark in the prosecution of two alleged MS-13 leaders, Moises Rivera-Luna and Tokiro Rodas Ramirez. Prosecutors accuse the men of involvement in a conspiracy connected to murders and assaults carried out in the Washington area more than a decade ago but two separate juries have now failed to convict them.

Rivera-Luna, whom prosecutors allege was a senior MS-13 figure known as “Viejo Santos,” was first tried alongside Rodas Ramirez in December. That case ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked. Prosecutors tried them again in April, only for a second jury to reach the same impasse.

Judge Royce Lamberth, who has served on the federal bench for nearly four decades, said as the second trial unraveled: “I’ve done this a long time and haven’t seen one quite like this one.”

The MS-13 prosecution is reportedly part of a broader pattern. Before the April retrial, Pirro’s office had secured convictions in only four of eight federal jury trials since January, according to CNN. In nearly a dozen subsequent cases, two defendants were acquitted and four trials ended with deadlocked juries.Federal criminal trials nationwide typically result in convictions roughly 90% of the time, according to federal judiciary statistics cited by CNN.

More than two dozen investigators, former prosecutors, defense attorneys and other legal experts told the network the recent record was virtually unheard of in Washington, with some describing the situation as “embarrassing” or dire.

Some legal figures raised the possibility that Washington jurors’ views of the Trump administration could be influencing their scrutiny of Justice Department cases while others rejected politics as an explanation for the MS-13 result.

“This is not a political case,” defense attorney Robert Feitel told CNN. “I think this is a failure of proof and a stubbornness born of desperation on the part of the prosecutors’ office.”

Pirro, after the first mistrial, nevertheless vowed to keep pursuing convictions and “do whatever it takes within the bounds of the law to bring the guilty to justice.”

Rivera-Luna and Rodas Ramirez are scheduled to face a third trial in September.

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