One former federal prosecutor is calling on former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro – who President Donald Trump appointed to be the Department of Justice's (DOJ) top prosecutor in Washington D.C. — to recuse herself from a high-profile case involving a January 6 defendant.
During a Monday interview on CNN, former DOJ white-collar prosecutor Ankush Khardori asserted that Pirro was incapable of handling the case involving Brian J. Cole, who is accused of leaving pipe bombs outside of the Democratic and Republican Party's national offices the night before the deadly riot. CNN host Brianna Keilar pointed out that while Cole expressed disillusionment with both major political parties, he sympathized with Trump's debunked conspiracy theory that he only lose the 2020 election because it was supposedly conducted fraudulently.
"Cole said 'something just snapped' after watching everything get worse and that he wanted to do something to the parties because 'they were in charge.' That's according to the memo here," Keilar said. "Prosecutors say when Cole was asked why he placed the explosives at the RNC and DNC, he responded, 'I really don't like either party at this point.' How do you see prosecutors planning to use that as a motive in court?"
Khardori acknowledged that Cole's alleged motive "would be helpful in explaining to the jury why he [allegedly] did what he did." However, he added that "the prosecutors account of his motive are almost certainly the most Trump-friendly version of what happened" due to Pirro being the U.S. Attorney in D.C.
"The U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, which is prosecuting this case, is Jeanine Pirro: A rabid and frequently unhinged Republican partisan and Trump loyalist who herself participated in the effort to mislead the public about Trump losing the 2020 election," Khardori said. "She was part of the problem here. Honestly. She should be recused because she can't possibly oversee a case that concerns this and be dispassionate because she was part of the problem."
"She hosted [2020 election denier] Sidney Powell on her show in November 2020, and that was one of the reasons that Fox had to pay out nearly $800 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion [Voting Systems]," he added. "So I would just urge everyone to be very careful about taking the government's representations on this point at face value, because they do almost everything they can to protect Trump these days."
Watch the segment below:
