Jeanine Pirro is making good on her promise to restore law and order in Washington, D.C.
But she inherited a catastrophic mess from Biden’s prosecutor.
And Jeanine Pirro exposed one dark secret about the Swamp that left Democrats fuming.
Biden’s prosecutor refused to do his job
Washington, D.C. turned into a crime-ridden nightmare under Joe Biden.
And Matthew Graves bears a massive share of the blame.
Graves served as Biden’s U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from November 2021 until he conveniently resigned on January 16, 2025 — just days before President Trump’s inauguration.¹
During his tenure, violent crime exploded across the nation’s capital while Graves sat on his hands.
Carjackings skyrocketed by hundreds of percent.
Homicides averaged 221 per year on his watch.²
Armed robberies became routine occurrences.
The numbers reveal the ugly truth — Graves simply refused to prosecute criminals.
His office declined to prosecute a staggering 67% of arrests in fiscal year 2022.³
That’s not a typo.
Two out of every three criminals arrested by Washington, D.C. police walked free because Graves wouldn’t do his job.
Even after public pressure forced improvements, Graves still refused to prosecute 56% of arrests in fiscal year 2023 and 43% in fiscal year 2024.⁴
Compare that dismal record to the years before Graves took over.
From 2010 to 2018, the D.C. prosecutor’s office charged between 64% and 77% of cases on the day of arrest.⁵
Graves wasn’t just slightly worse than his predecessors.
He was catastrophically incompetent.
The attack that changed everything
The full scope of Graves’ failures became impossible to ignore after the brutal August 3 attack on Edward Coristine.
Coristine, a 19-year-old former Department of Government Efficiency staffer, was walking a woman to her car near Logan Circle when approximately 10 suspects approached them.⁶
He pushed the woman into the vehicle to protect her.
The mob then beat Coristine mercilessly while attempting to carjack the vehicle.
The attackers punched and kicked him repeatedly, leaving him bloodied and hospitalized.
President Trump shared graphic images of the attack that shocked the nation.
"They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!" Trump posted.⁷
Two 15-year-olds arrested at the scene faced the maximum possibility of being held in custody under D.C. law until age 21.
Instead, a D.C. Superior Court judge sentenced both to probation.⁸
The boy got 12 months probation despite pleading guilty to felony assault, robbery, and simple assault.
The girl received nine months probation after pleading guilty to simple assault.
Neither spent a single day in jail.
That soft-on-crime approach epitomized the Graves era.
Under Graves’ watch from 2023 to 2024, only 3% of adults arrested for carrying a pistol without a license were sentenced to prison.⁹
Let that sink in.
Criminals caught illegally carrying guns in the nation’s capital faced virtually zero consequences.
Pirro cleans up the mess
Now U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped the hammer on Coristine’s attackers in a way Graves never would have.
Pirro’s office announced federal charges against 19-year-old Lawrence Cotton Powell and 18-year-old Anthony Taylor for the Coristine attack.¹⁰
Both face two counts of first-degree robbery — each punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Both face assault with intent to commit robbery — punishable by up to 15 years.
Both face attempted carjacking — punishable by up to five years.
That’s a potential 35 years behind bars compared to the probation the younger attackers received.
But Pirro didn’t stop there.
She revealed Powell and Taylor participated in another brutal assault just minutes before attacking Coristine.¹¹
Surveillance footage captured them assaulting Ethan Levine outside a Sunoco gas station on U Street.
"Cotton-Powell was stomping on Levine’s head," Pirro explained at a press conference. "They continued to attack Levine while he was on the ground. And then proceeded to rob him of his sneakers and his watch."¹²
Powell had already been sentenced on April 3 for felony attempted robbery, with prosecutors seeking jail time.¹³
He walked free under the old system.
Then he attacked two more victims in a single night.
That’s what happens when prosecutors refuse to hold criminals accountable.
The numbers that expose Biden’s failure
Pirro appeared on Fox News and exposed the full extent of Graves’ dereliction of duty.
"The prosecutor before me, the Biden prosecutor, did not paper something like 65% of the arrests," Pirro stated. "That means that when police made an arrest, the prosecutor wouldn’t even prosecute. My papering rate is 92%."¹⁴
The contrast couldn’t be starker.
Graves let nearly two-thirds of arrested criminals walk free without charges.
Pirro prosecutes 92% of arrests — holding criminals accountable like prosecutors are supposed to do.
Pirro also revealed the office Graves left behind was severely understaffed.
"This was a neglected, unattended to office," she said. "We were missing 90 prosecutors, 150 investigators and paralegals."¹⁵
Despite those staffing challenges, Pirro’s already delivering results.
"Those cops make an arrest, I’ve got their back," Pirro declared. "I’m going to file those charges. And whatever happens, so be it. But they know right now that we’re going to fight the fight."¹⁶
That’s the leadership Washington, D.C. desperately needed but never got from Matthew Graves.
Graves spent his tenure focused on prosecuting January 6 defendants while violent criminals terrorized the nation’s capital.
He charged nearly 1,600 people connected to the Capitol riot.¹⁷
But he couldn’t be bothered to prosecute the gang members shooting up neighborhoods.
The Heritage Foundation nailed it in their assessment of Graves’ legacy: "Matt Graves will go down in history as the worst chief prosecutor in the District in decades because of his abysmal track record in keeping our city safe."¹⁸
Now Jeanine Pirro is fixing the disaster Graves created.
She’s holding criminals accountable.
She’s backing up police officers who risk their lives to protect the community.
And she’s showing Washington, D.C. what real law and order looks like.
Joe Biden handpicked Matthew Graves to be his top prosecutor in the nation’s capital.
The catastrophic results speak for themselves.
¹ U.S. Department of Justice, "United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves to Step Down January 16, 2025," December 30, 2024.
² The Heritage Foundation, "Matthew Graves’ Abysmal Legacy As U.S. Attorney for D.C.," January 2025.
³ NBC4 Washington, "More DC arrests prosecuted as US attorney pushes back on criticism," October 20, 2023.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ WTOP News, "US Attorney for DC is prosecuting more cases as promising crime trends emerge," March 15, 2024.
⁶ The Hill, "DOGE staffer ‘Big Balls’ attacked in DC carjacking attempt: Reports," August 6, 2025.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ Washington Times, "No jail time for 2 teens who jumped ex-DOGE staffer, ignited Trump’s D.C. crime crackdown," October 15, 2025.
⁹ The Heritage Foundation, "Matthew Graves’ Abysmal Legacy As U.S. Attorney for D.C.," January 2025.
¹⁰ Fox 5 DC, "2 men arrested in connection to attack on former DOGE staffer Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine," October 21, 2025.
¹¹ Townhall, "Federal Charges Filed Against Teens Who Beat Former DOGE Employee Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine," October 21, 2025.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ BNO News, "2 men charged in attack on ‘Big Balls’ DOGE staffer in Washington, D.C.," October 20, 2025.
¹⁴ Fox News, Jeanine Pirro interview, October 21, 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Washington Times, "Matthew Graves, D.C.’s top prosecutor, to resign before Donald Trump takes office," December 30, 2024.
¹⁸ The Heritage Foundation, "Matthew Graves’ Abysmal Legacy As U.S. Attorney for D.C.," January 2025.
