Jeanine Pirro empaneled a Steven Vandervelde special grand jury in Washington, DC, and Steven Vandervelden is overseeing it. The move was reported on Wednesday and stands out because special grand juries can issue a report even if no one is brought to trial.
Vandervelden is one of Pirro’s top allies in her office. He also played a role in a failed probe into then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell and in an inquiry into allegations that the D.C. police force purposely tampered with their own crime statistics.
Washington, DC special grand jury
Legal experts quoted in the report said there is no known recent precedent for a special grand jury in Washington. Steve Friedland, a law professor at Elon University, said, “This could be very interesting,” and added, “Each administration has its own approach to how it enforces the law and how it uses the tools available to it.”
Niki Kuckes, a professor at Roger Williams University with expertise in grand jury procedures, said, “They are very unusual,” and, “Sometimes they can issue a report, which a regular grand jury can't do.”
Jeanine Pirro and Donald Trump
The move comes after Pirro dropped vandalism charges linked to Donald Trump’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool project. The report said Trump was enraged by that decision, and that Pirro and top Justice Department officials face pressure to deliver on cases he wants prosecuted.
What the special grand jury will examine has not been disclosed. For now, the only clear development is that Pirro has put an unusual Washington, DC tool in place, and Vandervelden is the person running it.
