U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, famous for her show on Fox News, announced on December 15, 2025, that a federal probe, which reviewed ~6,000 reports and 50+ witnesses, found widespread misclassification of crimes by D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), which artificially lowered reported crime statistics.
Disappointingly, she declined to pursue charges, and MPD was urged to address the issues internally. In her comments, Pirro credited President Trump’s federal crackdown for greater crime reductions than previously anticipated.
Starting off her statements, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro noted, “It is evident that a significant number of reports had been misclassified, making crime appear artificially lower than it was.” However, she disappointingly added that this scandal “does not rise to the level of a criminal charge,” and that the MPD will “take steps to internally address these underlying issues.”
Building on that, Pirro turned her attention to the president’s efforts to crack down on crime in DC. “The uncovering of these manipulated crime statistics makes clear that President Trump has reduced crime even more than originally thought, since crimes were actually higher than reported,” the former Fox host stated. She added, “His crime fighting efforts have delivered even more safety to the people of the District.”
Adding more context in a statement to X, Pirro noted, “In August 2025, the United States Attorney’s Office in DC began an investigation into MPD’s reported deflation of crime statistics. The need for accurate information to fight crime is essential.”
Concluding her comments, she said, “After a review of almost 6000 reports and the interview of over 50 witnesses, it is evident that a significant number of reports had been misclassified, making crime appear artificially lower than it was.”
Watch Pirro describe the matter on Fox News:
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Offering another view on the scandal, a lawmaker added, “Testimony from experienced and courageous MPD commanders has exposed the truth: Chief Pamela Smith coerced staff to report artificially low crime data and cultivated a culture of fear to achieve her agenda.”
However, some locals were unsatisfied with this reaction. “While I respect U.S. Attorney Pirro’s decision not to pursue charges against DC Police for how they have intentionally hidden crimes from police stats and recognize it may not meet the threshold of a crime, it is a huge blow to myself and other victims of horrific crimes in DC whose stats were never included in the database because they weren’t 1st degree offenses,” one conservartive wrote in a open letter.
Clearly annoyed, the letter added, “This decision tells victims that “you don’t matter, the wrong done to you doesn’t matter. It wasn’t worthy of being in police stats then and it’s not worthy of addressing now.” It is out of line with the Trump administration’s rhetoric about addressing crime and caring about victims of all crime. It’s disappointing that this opportunity has been thrown away — will DC police even be forced to publish all crime stats?”
Concluding, the letter read, “I would welcome an off-the-record conversation with U.S. Attorney Pirro so that I may share how the police and justice system fail victims and how it can be improved. I would love the chance to learn what challenges her office faces in bringing about these necessary changes.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video