By Sadie Gurman

WASHINGTON -- President Trump said he would name Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be Washington's top prosecutor on an interim basis, after dropping his first choice, Ed Martin, who failed to gather enough Republican support.

"Jeanine is incredibly well qualified for this position," Trump said on Truth Social Thursday, pointing to her television experience as well as her work as a judge and prosecutor in Westchester County, New York. "She is in a class by herself."

Hours earlier, Trump said he was abandoning his nomination of Martin, whom several Republicans said they couldn't support because of his advocacy for members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pirro, who joined Fox News in 2006, co-hosts the network's show "The Five" on weeknights. She has been a longtime ally who backed Trump's false claims of election fraud after his 2020 election loss.

She is the latest in a series of Trump appointees who came from Fox. The president had previously selected another Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, as secretary of defense, while former Fox Business host Sean Duffy serves as his transportation secretary.

Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

The implosion of Martin's nomination was a rare setback for Trump, who otherwise has been able to install some of his most polarizing picks for high-level posts.

While leading the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia on an interim basis, Martin had begun to position himself a leader in Trump's retribution campaign against perceived enemies and adversaries, promising investigations of people opposed to Trump and his administration. Some GOP senators cited concerns with Martin, including his vocal support of those involved in the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump subsequently nominated Martin to serve in the role permanently, which would require Senate confirmation. It became clear Martin's nomination was in trouble earlier this week when Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told the White House he would oppose his confirmation, essentially killing Martin's prospects in the Senate weeks before his temporary appointment to the post expired. At least a half dozen other Republican senators had also privately expressed opposition, people familiar with the discussions said.

"He wasn't getting the support from people that I thought" he should have, Trump said Thursday, adding that he would try to find a different role for Martin within the Justice Department. "I was disappointed, but that's the way it works sometimes," Trump said. "He wasn't rejected, but we felt it would be hard."

A spokesman for Martin didn't immediately return calls for comment. Around the time of Trump's announcement, Martin posted a picture of himself on X dressed as the pope with the message, "Plot twist..."

Martin's interim appointment was set to expire May 20. Federal law allows the district court in Washington to fill the vacancy until the Senate confirms a replacement. The court could elect to keep Martin, though that is considered unlikely.

Martin, 54 years old, has been a lightning rod from the outset. A Missouri lawyer and former chair of the state's Republican Party, he has been among the most vocal advocates for the rioters. He served on the board of the nonprofit Patriot Freedom Project, a group that supported Jan. 6 defendants and led efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss.

Trump in January named him to lead the Washington U.S. attorney's office on an interim basis. Martin's early leadership has brought turmoil to the office, which has led some of the country's most politically charged prosecutions in recent years, including those of several Trump allies.

Martin fired or demoted veteran attorneys who had prosecuted Jan. 6 defendants and began reviewing the department's decision to charge hundreds of them with felony offenses for obstructing an official congressional proceeding. Trump granted clemency to all of the more than 1,500 people charged in the attack. Martin, who had defended some of the rioters while in private practice, oversaw the dismissal of prosecutions that were pending.

His nomination had hit another hurdle after it emerged that he had appeared more than 150 times on the Russian propaganda networks RT and Sputnik, including a 2021 segment discussing whether the U.S. was sliding into authoritarianism. Lawmakers also cited concerns over his ties to Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a Jan. 6 rioter known to espouse white supremacist and antisemitic views. Martin had since tried to distance himself.

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com, Jess Bravin at Jess.Bravin@wsj.com and C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2025 19:21 ET (23:21 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.