{"id":143938,"date":"2026-02-12T16:38:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/12\/jeanine-pirro-brought-in-dance-photographer-to-prosecute-lawmakers-and-it-went-exactly-as-youd-expect\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T16:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:38:34","slug":"jeanine-pirro-brought-in-dance-photographer-to-prosecute-lawmakers-and-it-went-exactly-as-youd-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/12\/jeanine-pirro-brought-in-dance-photographer-to-prosecute-lawmakers-and-it-went-exactly-as-youd-expect\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeanine Pirro Brought In Dance Photographer To Prosecute Lawmakers And It Went Exactly As You\u2019d Expect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have never heard of a situation where every single grand juror rejected an indictment,\u201d former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote<\/a>. \u201cEvery single one.\u201d The Trump administration has made a habit of failing to secure indictments \u2014 a process so infamously easy that everyone jokes about how the government could indict a ham sandwich \u2014 but it\u2019s still unheard of to fail to persuade even one grand juror to indict. <\/p>\n

Achievement unlocked!<\/p>\n

NBC reports that the administration not only flubbed its attempt to indict the six Democratic lawmakers who starred in a video reminding military personnel that the law requires them to reject unlawful orders, but it could not find a single grand juror willing to bite. The case against the lawmakers was, of course, frivolous. The Uniform Code of Military Justice does, in fact, impose a duty on the military to disobey illegal orders, rendering any charge against the legislators an uphill battle. <\/p>\n

It was also a battle that the career prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office probably didn\u2019t want to fight. U.S. Attorney Offices around the country have suffered drastic attrition, with principled public servants refusing to bring garbage charges to appease their political appointee bosses. To fill out the ranks in her office, former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro apparently tried to \u201cget the band back together\u201d from her days as the Westchester County DA, bringing on a former assistant DAs from the old days to help her out. <\/p>\n

Steven Vandervelden, the long-time local prosecutor, drew the case against the lawmakers \u2014 along with another lawyer with limited federal prosecutorial experience, Carlton Davis \u2014 suggesting Pirro couldn\u2019t convince one of the career prosecutors left in the office to touch this case. And it\u2019s possible that even Vandervelden knew this was a lost cause because according to Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, Vandervelden continued to run his dance photography studio while pitching in to help his old boss pursue political prosecutions.<\/p>\n

This dance photography studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Apparently Vandervelden went into this business in 2023, telling the Rockland\/Westchester Journal News<\/a> he appreciated a career where he could \u201clook for the light and find beauty as opposed to the grime\u201d after 34 years prosecuting homicide and organized crime cases. Pirro\u2019s office sent a statement to Bloomberg pushing back against the news that he runs a photography studio:<\/p>\n

\n

In a statement, Pirro said, \u201cSteven Vandervelden is one of the best prosecutors and best investigators that I have worked with in well over three decades in the criminal justice system. Any attempt to undercut his expertise is nothing more than an effort to detract from his excellent prosecutorial record to which few can compare. And by the way, everybody has a hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Based the DOJ\u2019s redaction choices and Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s testimony yesterday, \u201ceverybody has a hobby\u201d also appears to be the administration\u2019s official stance on the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Seriously though, Pirro\u2019s statement is frankly disrespectful of Vandervelden. This isn\u2019t a hobby, it\u2019s his business! And taking a look at the photos on his site, he\u2019s pretty good at it!<\/p>\n

It also misunderstands the criticism, which is probably to be expected of an administration dominated by the dullest tools in the metaphorical shed. The knock on Vandervelden isn\u2019t that he\u2019s a photographer, it\u2019s that a small business owner who retired three years ago is running a case with grave constitutional implications as a side hustle<\/em>. Trying to charge sitting legislators with treason \u2014 or whatever nonsense charge the DOJ dreamed up \u2014 probably shouldn\u2019t be a gig economy job.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what happens when the DOJ has embarked on a campaign of lawlessness that saw its public integrity unit all run for the hills rather than be associated with behavior that should by all rights end in disbarment<\/a>. So Pirro\u2019s office called in Vandervelden like hiring a prosecutor off Fiverr and gave him a guaranteed loser of a case. Man, it\u2019s not worth it. Just stick to the photography because working with this DOJ is nothing but grime all the way down.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Jeanine Pirro Brought In Dance Photographer To Prosecute Lawmakers And It Went Exactly As You\u2019d Expect<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJudge Jeanine Pirro (Photo by MIKE THEILER\/AFP\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have never heard of a situation where every single grand juror rejected an indictment,\u201d former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote<\/a>. \u201cEvery single one.\u201d The Trump administration has made a habit of failing to secure indictments \u2014 a process so infamously easy that everyone jokes about how the government could indict a ham sandwich \u2014 but it\u2019s still unheard of to fail to persuade even one grand juror to indict. <\/p>\n

Achievement unlocked!<\/p>\n

NBC reports that the administration not only flubbed its attempt to indict the six Democratic lawmakers who starred in a video reminding military personnel that the law requires them to reject unlawful orders, but it could not find a single grand juror willing to bite. The case against the lawmakers was, of course, frivolous. The Uniform Code of Military Justice does, in fact, impose a duty on the military to disobey illegal orders, rendering any charge against the legislators an uphill battle. <\/p>\n

It was also a battle that the career prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office probably didn\u2019t want to fight. U.S. Attorney Offices around the country have suffered drastic attrition, with principled public servants refusing to bring garbage charges to appease their political appointee bosses. To fill out the ranks in her office, former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro apparently tried to \u201cget the band back together\u201d from her days as the Westchester County DA, bringing on a former assistant DAs from the old days to help her out. <\/p>\n

Steven Vandervelden, the long-time local prosecutor, drew the case against the lawmakers \u2014 along with another lawyer with limited federal prosecutorial experience, Carlton Davis \u2014 suggesting Pirro couldn\u2019t convince one of the career prosecutors left in the office to touch this case. And it\u2019s possible that even Vandervelden knew this was a lost cause because according to Bloomberg Law News<\/a>, Vandervelden continued to run his dance photography studio while pitching in to help his old boss pursue political prosecutions.<\/p>\n

This dance photography studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Apparently Vandervelden went into this business in 2023, telling the Rockland\/Westchester Journal News<\/a> he appreciated a career where he could \u201clook for the light and find beauty as opposed to the grime\u201d after 34 years prosecuting homicide and organized crime cases. Pirro\u2019s office sent a statement to Bloomberg pushing back against the news that he runs a photography studio:<\/p>\n

\n

In a statement, Pirro said, \u201cSteven Vandervelden is one of the best prosecutors and best investigators that I have worked with in well over three decades in the criminal justice system. Any attempt to undercut his expertise is nothing more than an effort to detract from his excellent prosecutorial record to which few can compare. And by the way, everybody has a hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Based the DOJ\u2019s redaction choices and Attorney General Pam Bondi\u2019s testimony yesterday, \u201ceverybody has a hobby\u201d also appears to be the administration\u2019s official stance on the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

Seriously though, Pirro\u2019s statement is frankly disrespectful of Vandervelden. This isn\u2019t a hobby, it\u2019s his business! And taking a look at the photos on his site, he\u2019s pretty good at it!<\/p>\n

It also misunderstands the criticism, which is probably to be expected of an administration dominated by the dullest tools in the metaphorical shed. The knock on Vandervelden isn\u2019t that he\u2019s a photographer, it\u2019s that a small business owner who retired three years ago is running a case with grave constitutional implications as a side hustle<\/em>. Trying to charge sitting legislators with treason \u2014 or whatever nonsense charge the DOJ dreamed up \u2014 probably shouldn\u2019t be a gig economy job.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s what happens when the DOJ has embarked on a campaign of lawlessness that saw its public integrity unit all run for the hills rather than be associated with behavior that should by all rights end in disbarment<\/a>. So Pirro\u2019s office called in Vandervelden like hiring a prosecutor off Fiverr and gave him a guaranteed loser of a case. Man, it\u2019s not worth it. Just stick to the photography because working with this DOJ is nothing but grime all the way down.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have never heard of a situation where every single grand juror rejected an indictment,\u201d former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote. \u201cEvery single one.\u201d The Trump administration has made a habit of failing to secure indictments \u2014 a process so infamously easy that everyone jokes about how the government could indict a ham sandwich \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Headshot-300x200-MoYQ79.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}