Pirro hit with bar complaint over bid to indict Democrats in illegal orders video

A legal watchdog has filed a bar complaint against U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, arguing she violated various standards in seeking to bring charges against six Democratic lawmakers who filmed a video noting that military members can refuse illegal orders.

The complaint from the Legal Accountability Center asks the New York court system’s Grievance Committee to investigate Pirro, saying she violated rules of professional conduct.

A grand jury ultimately declined to bring charges related to the video, which shows the six lawmakers, each with military and intelligence backgrounds, speaking directly to active service members and saying, “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”

But the filing from the center argues Pirro’s directive to prosecutors to bring the case was “unwarranted, frivolous, and would serve merely to harass or maliciously injure the targets of her order” and that “she knew or should have known, as a government prosecutor, that her directive to seek indictments was not legally or factually supported by ‘probable cause.’”

“By directing the said AUSAs to seek meritless indictments against the Trump administration’s perceived political enemies, she thereby engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice,” the group wrote in the filing , using an abbreviation for assistant U.S. attorneys.

The video outraged President Trump, who called it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Prosecutors planned to charge the six lawmakers under a law that forbids “interference with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the U.S. Armed Forces,” though a grand jury found prosecutors did not bring sufficient evidence to justify bringing changes.

Tim Lauer, a spokesperson for Pirro, called the complaint frivolous.

“The grand jury, not the prosecutor, decides whether to indict. That is their job. Attempting to weaponize the disciplinary process against prosecutors for doing their jobs amounts to nothing more than a frivolous complaint,” he said in a statement.

Additional complaints were filed against the two prosecutors who brought the case at Pirro’s direction, made in New York and Virginia.

The Legal Accountability Center said the video was clearly protected speech and that it should have been apparent to prosecutors they had no case.

“Regarding the requirement of ‘probable cause,’ it should be evident that Ms. Pirro knew or should have known that none existed. How could it, when the comments at issue were plainly protected First Amendment speech,” they wrote.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), one of the six lawmakers in the video, said he counted Pirro as one of Trump’s “stooges” for bringing “bogus criminal charges” against him and the others.

“They have weaponized our Justice Department, attempting to silence dissent and anyone who stands up to their lawlessness. Their efforts will not succeed because the American people are fed up with their corruption and failed policies. Accountability is coming,” he said in a statement.