Grand Jury REJECTS Jeanine Pirro's Prosecutorial Abuse; Refuses to Indict Members of Congress - Glenn Kirschner

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All the "King's" Men: Trump's lackeys and their disservice to America

Six members of Congress made a public service video, reminding military members of their absolute obligation to refuse to obey unlawful orders. Though they committed no crimes, Donald Trump demanded that they be prosecuted.

Any ethical prosecutor would refuse to seek a grand jury indictment of people who had committed no crimes. But Pam Bondi and Jeanine Pirro engaged in a horrific act of prosecutorial abuse, urging a grand jury to indict the six members of Congress.

Fortunately, the grand jurors - sitting as the conscience of the community - just refused to indict the six members of Congress, obviously because they had committed no crime. - Glenn Kirschner - 02/11/2026.


Find Glenn on Substack: glennkirschner.substack.com

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1. MaddowBlog-Democrats want to turn the tables on Pirro following failed indictment effort

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described this week’s circumstances as “a constitutional crisis.” There’s every reason to believe he was right.

The DOJ tried to charge sitting members of Congress, who’d done nothing, with felonies that would’ve sent them to prison for decades.

Despite the gambit's failure, Schumer characterized the effort itself as “a constitutional crisis.” I don’t think that’s hyperbolic. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-12T16:53:14.847Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/democrats-want-to-turn-the-tables-on-pirro-following-failed-indictment-effort

This marked the latest in a series of embarrassments for Pirro and Donald Trump’s unraveling Justice Department, but the “no bill” failure, overseen by prosecutors with unfortunate backgrounds, did not close the book on the fiasco.

On the contrary, some of the targets of this ridiculous gambit appear eager to turn the tables on those who went after them. Politico reported:

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) on Wednesday demanded U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro preserve all evidence related to her unsuccessful effort to bring charges against him and five other Democratic lawmakers. […]

In a letter sent Wednesday to Pirro’s office, Abbe Lowell, Crow’s attorney, called the effort to indict Crow and the other Democrats involved in the video ‘a breathtaking and unprecedented level of prosecutorial overreach and misuse of power.’

A week earlier, after Sen. Elissa Slotkin told the Justice Department that she wouldn’t cooperate with its baseless investigation, the Michigan Democrat’s lawyers also requested that Pirro preserve all documents related to the matter for “anticipated litigation.”

Time will tell what, if anything, comes of this, but it’s also worth pausing to appreciate the larger context. After the grand jury dismissed the case as nonsensical, it was easy to mock Pirro and her assigned prosecutors over their humiliating failure, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: Federal prosecutors wanted to bring serious felony charges against sitting members of Congress who’d done nothing wrong. If successful, the charges would have sent lawmakers to prison for many years.

That’s more than just bonkers. It’s also a dangerous step down an authoritarian path.

.....“I say to my Republican colleagues, if the executive branch can merely attempt to prosecute members of the legislative branch for simply exercising free speech, that is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem, it is a constitutional crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday.

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2. MaddowBlog-Jeanine Pirro struggles after racking up a series of embarrassing defeats

The Republican prosecutor’s furious response to her latest failure offered fresh evidence that she’s ill-suited for the position she’s in.

Jeanine Pirro struggles after racking up a series of embarrassing defeats - MS NOW apple.news/AB7QFODUOSku...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:21:34.146Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jeanine-pirro-struggles-after-racking-up-a-series-of-embarrassing-defeats

The pushback to the investigation was swift, broad and bipartisan, with several congressional Republicans agreeing that it was a mistake to pursue the Fed chair with trumped-up charges.

Late Friday, the case, such as it was, unraveled. MS NOW reported:

A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas targeting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, according to a court filing unsealed Friday — a major blow to the Trump administration’s criminal investigation into the central bank’s leader.

In a remarkable decision, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that ‘a mountain of evidence’ suggested that ‘the Government served these subpoenas on the [Federal Reserve] Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.’ Boasberg added that federal prosecutors ‘produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime,’ calling the Trump administration’s case ‘so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.’

....Broadly speaking, there are a few elements to consider as the dust settles on the ruling and the White House weighs its future options.

First, the president really ought to be asking himself right now whether it was a smart move to tap a former Fox News host to serve as the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. Jeanine Pirro’s failed effort against Powell was humiliating, but it coincided with a similarly humiliating effort to indict Democratic veterans in Congress who advised service members to follow the law, which coincided with a separate failed criminal investigation into Joe Biden.

In fact, Pirro’s office has lost so many closely watched cases with such regularity that it’s been challenging to keep up with them.

Second, in an unusual press conference following the apparent demise of her case against Powell, the Republican prosecutor made little effort to claim she had evidence of wrongdoing, but said she wanted to go after the Fed chair anyway, just in case some undetermined crimes might have been committed......

As the press conference started to wrap up, Pirro was asked about the frequency of federal grand juries rejecting her efforts. Her furious response offered fresh evidence that she’s ill-suited for the position she’s in.

Pirro: CUT IT OUT!!! I’ll tell you what’s historic! I'm willing to take a not guilty. I'm willing to take a not true bill. Because I'll take all the crimes and put them in

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-03-13T19:56:17.573Z

Finally, there’s the road ahead. Given the circumstances, there’s a silver lining for the White House to the rejection of the baseless case against Powell: The sooner this case goes away, the easier it will be for Senate Republicans to move forward with Kevin Warsh’s nomination to succeed Powell. All Pirro had to do was accept Friday’s outcome, scrap plans for an appeal and move on to other priorities.

The prosecutor instead signaled plans for the opposite path, which dovetailed with the president publishing a hysterical tirade to his social media platform, condemning Boasberg and accusing Powell of wrongdoing in the vaguest ways possible.