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Jeanine Pirro is an extreme Trump loyalist facing defamation claims from Smartmatic over her decision to push election fraud claims after the 2020 elections, despite saying in court depositions that she believed the election was “free and fair” and after she was told that Fox News’s internal fact-checkers had debunked several of her claims. She also said the Department of Justice needed to be “cleansed” and called for at least two DOJ employees to be arrested over their involvement in the Mueller investigation. Correspondence revealed in the Smartomatic lawsuit showed that Pirro seemed to be pushing the election fraud claims in an attempt to secure a pardon for her ex-husband, Al Pirro, who was convicted of 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion in 2000 and reportedly had ties to organized crime. Pirro had a history of erratic behavior, with Fox executives calling her a “reckless maniac,” “insane,” and accusing her of finding “random conspiracy theories” on the internet. Her own producer said she “should never be on live television.” In March 2020, viewers accused Pirro of hosting her show drunk after she joined 15 minutes late due to “technical difficulties” and was seen putting down a drink at the top of her show. She was also the subject of a federal investigation while campaigning to be the New York attorney general after investigators uncovered an audio recording on which she urged a security firm to place a recording device on her and her husband’s boat to catch him cheating. Pirro was condemned by Fox News over her Islamophobic comments about U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar. Pirro asked whether Omar’s choice to wear a hijab in accordance with her faith was “indicative of her adherence to Sharia law,” which Pirro said “in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution.” Pirro also previously held progressive stances on several policy issues. Pirro has supported abortion access, gun control, affirmative action and gay rights in her political campaigns. She became the first elected Republican official to attend a Pride parade during her campaign to become the New York attorney general in 2006, saying she was proud to have fought for the passage of a hate crime law that included sexual orientation as a protected class. She also supported Medicaid funding for abortions, gun control, and affirmative action during that campaign. |
2020: Jeanine Pirro Supported Trump’s False Claims Of Election Fraud In The 2020 Election Despite Believing That The Election Was “Fair And Free.” According to USA TODAY, "As a prominent Fox News host, Jeanine Pirro – a friend of President Donald Trump and now a top Justice Department official – repeatedly sought to support Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election by claiming widespread voting machine fraud. Newly filed court documents allege, however, that Pirro later acknowledged during court depositions under oath that she believed no voting machine fraud or failures had occurred and that the 2020 election Trump lost was, in her own words, 'fair and free.' The documents were filed Aug. 19 by lawyers for the Smartmatic voting technology company as part of its ongoing $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox that was first filed in February 2021. Pirro was just one of many prominent Fox News on-air personalities who worked to help Trump push his false 'Stop the Steal' narrative after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden." [USA TODAY, 8/26/25]
November 2020: Pirro Pushed 2020 Election-Fraud Conspiracy Theories Despite Being Told That Fox’s Internal Fact Checkers, The “Brain Room,” Had Debunked Most Of Her Claims. According to The Washington Post, "Two weeks after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential race, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was preparing an opening commentary for her Saturday-evening show that her own producer found so alarming, he decided to warn his bosses about it. Pirro’s intended script included a barrage of dubious claims alleging major election fraud — a supposed vote-rigging plot involving elaborate but unsubstantiated claims about Venezuelan and Cuban ties to a U.S. voting-machine company, according to a Nov. 20, 2020, email that executive producer Jerry Andrews sent to two network executives." [Washington Post, 4/3/23]
April 2023: Fox News Agreed To Pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 Million To Settle Its Lawsuit That Fox Acted With Malice When Pirro And Others Made Accusations About The Company They Knew Were Untrue. According to The Associated Press, “Fox News agreed Tuesday to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million to avert a trial in the voting machine company’s lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election. […] Outside of the $787.5 million promised to Colorado-based Dominion, it was unclear what other consequences Fox would face. Fox acknowledged in a statement ‘the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,’ but no apology was offered. […] Dominion set out to prove in the lawsuit that Fox acted with malice in airing allegations that it knew to be false, or with ‘reckless disregard’ for the truth. It presented volumes of internal emails and text messages that showed Fox executives and personalities saying they knew the accusations were untrue, even as the falsehoods were aired on programs hosted by Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeannine Pirro.” [Associated Press, 4/18/23]
February 2023: A New York Appellate Court Revived Smartmatic’s Defamation Claims Against Pirro.According to Law & Crime, “Fox News lost its appeal of Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit for broadcasting conspiracy theories about voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. An intermediate appellate court in New York also revived claims against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Fox personality Jeanine Pirro. A five-judge panel unanimously found that Smartmatic adequately alleged that Fox News, Giuliani, Pirro and Maria Bartiromo either knew that the voting machine conspiracy theories were false — or had serious doubts about their veracity — when they aired.” [Law & Crime, 2/15/23]
December 2017: Pirro Said The Department Of Justice To Be “Cleansed,” Calling For At Least Two DoJ Employees To Be Arrested Over The Mueller Investigation. According to The Washington Post, "Fox News host Jeanine Pirro took things a few steps further this weekend, using her show to actually call on top law enforcement officials to be arrested. Pirro said the FBI and the Department of Justice both need to be 'cleansed.' 'It needs to be cleansed of individuals who should not just be fired, but who need to be taken out in handcuffs,' Pirro said. She explicitly called for the arrests of Strzok and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and she seemed to suggest similar fates for Mueller, former FBI director James B. Comey and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, for his handling of the dossier matter." [Washington Post, 12/11/17]
2020: Fox Executives Called Pirro A “Reckless Maniac,” “Insane,” And Accused Her Of Finding “Random Conspiracy Theories” On The Internet. According to NPR, "A Fox News executive has called a prominent Trump appointee a 'reckless maniac.' Another Fox executive said, 'I don't trust her to be responsible.' A third condemned her for the 'tendency to find random conspiracy theories on weird internet sites.' And a Fox corporate board member called a public statement of hers 'insane.' The person they were talking about is Jeanine Pirro, now the United States' top law enforcement official for Washington, D.C. At the time, she was a top-rated star on Fox News itself. Her colleagues made those remarks in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, when Pirro used her platform to amplify baseless claims that victory had been stolen from President Trump." [NPR, 9/3/25]
November 2020: One Of Pirro’s Producers Called Her A “Reckless Maniac” And Said She “Should Never Be On Live Television.” According to AP News, "One of her own producers, Jerry Andrews, called Pirro a 'reckless maniac,' Smartmatic said. He texted after one of her shows in November that it was 'rife (with) conspiracy theories and bs and is yet another example of why this woman should never be on live television.' " [AP News, 8/21/25]
March 2020: Pirro Faced Allegations Of Hosting Her Show Drunk After Joining 15 Minutes Late Due To “Technical Difficulties.” According to The Wrap, "Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show got a late start on Saturday night due to 'technical difficulties' — but when the former New York state judge did appear nearly 15 minutes into her show, her usually perfectly coifed hair appeared disheveled and she seemed to many viewers to be tipsy in her verbal delivery. 'We apologize for the technical difficulties,' Pirro said when she finally appeared about a quarter into the one-hour broadcast after anchor Jackie Ibanez covered for her initial absence. Pirro’s speaking was notably loose throughout the broadcast — which a network spokesperson attributed to the lack of a teleprompter in the host’s first broadcast from home. 'Just the other … day the president talked, or was hoping, about the possibility of reopening everything on Easter Sunday, uh, in a way where we could kind of come out of this quarantine, as loose as it may be, that we’re involved in,' Pirro said at one point. An individual close to the network 'absolutely' denied that Pirro was intoxicated and said the former prosecutor does not even drink alcohol." [The Wrap, 3/28/20 via Internet Archive]
September 2006: Jeanine Pirro Was Under Federal Investigation For Discussing Potentially Illegally Wiretapping Her Husband, Whom She Believed Was Cheating On Her, With Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. According to the New York Post, "In a devastating blow to her campaign, Republican attorney-general candidate Jeanine Pirro admitted yesterday she is under federal investigation for discussing with former city Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik how to secretly record her bad-boy husband to see if he was cheating. Bombshell transcripts of conversations between Pirro and Kerik reveal that an angry Pirro even offered to plant the bug herself on her husband’s boat, where she believed he was having sex with another woman. 'What am I supposed to do, Bernie? Watch him f- – – her every night?' Pirro is quoted as saying on the transcripts, obtained by WNBC-TV. 'What am I supposed to do? . . . I can go on the boat, I’ll put the f- – -ing thing on myself.' U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia confirmed his office is 'investigating allegations recently brought to our attention by other law-enforcement agencies' and is working with the FBI and Pirro’s old District Attorney’s Office in Westchester County. Garcia is looking into whether Pirro engaged in illegal wiretapping, which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence" [New York Post, 9/28/06]
1986: Jeanine Pirro Bowed Out Of The Lieutenant Governor’s Race Amid Questions About Her Husband’s Potential Ties To Organized Crime. According to The New York Times, "But while Mr. Pirro, who is widely known as Al, is often credited with a major role in his wife's political career, he has also been viewed as an albatross. In 1986, she bowed out as a candidate for lieutenant governor amid questions about his brief stake in a Connecticut garbage-hauling company, an industry notorious for its mob associations." [New York Times, 5/2/00]
May 2005: An FBI Recording Caught A Mobster Saying That Jeanine Pirro’s Husband, Albert Pirro, Tipped Him Off To An Investigation Jeanine Pirro’s Office Was Conducting. According to The New York Times, "Albert J. Pirro Jr., the husband of the Westchester County district attorney, Jeanine F. Pirro, said on Thursday that he had sued a reputed mob figure for slander for stating that he had tipped them about an investigation by his wife's office. The statement, which was never meant for public consumption, was made during a private meeting of reputed organized crime figures at a Tuckahoe cafe last October and secretly recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The contents of the tape were disclosed by The Daily News in an article on Monday. The report was not a welcome one for Mrs. Pirro, who is weighing re-election this fall and is also considered a potential candidate for attorney general next year. Before this week, her husband, a lobbyist and lawyer, was already seen as a potential liability, having spent 11 months in a federal prison and an additional six months in a halfway house for tax fraud." [New York Times, 5/5/05]
August 2005: The New York Daily News Reported That Jeanine Pirro Accepted Nearly $12,000 In Campaign Checks From Firms And Associates With Alleged Links To Organized Crime. According to the New York Daily News, “JEANINE PIRRO DECLARED ‘I have taken on the mob’ when she announced her run for U.S. Senate this week, but she could have said ‘I have taken from the mob.’ The Westchester District Attorney pocketed nearly $12,000 in campaign checks from firms and associates with alleged links to organized crime, the Daily News has found. A review of campaign and court records shows at least six donors with ties to mob families who’ve contributed to Pirro since 2003.” [New York Daily News, 8/12/05 via Internet Archive]
June 2000: Albert Pirro, Jeanine Pirro’s Then-Husband, Was Convicted Of 34 Counts Of Conspiracy And Tax Evasion. According to The New York Times, “A federal jury today convicted Albert J. Pirro Jr., the influential Republican businessman and husband of Jeanine F. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, of conspiracy and tax evasion, imperiling his business career and perhaps her political one. For Mr. Pirro, 53, the verdict, if upheld, could derail his career as Westchester's most powerful real estate development lawyer and one of New York State's most prodigious Republican fund-raisers. For Mrs. Pirro, 49, who could have been a strong contender for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate this year were it not for her husband's legal woes, the verdict jeopardizes her immediate prospects for higher office. And for Anthony G. Pirro, Albert Pirro's brother and accountant, who was also convicted today on similar charges, the result transforms an anonymous middle-class life into one inextricably linked to a messy public scandal. [...] But when the verdict was announced today at 12:10 p.m., on the fourth day of deliberations after a four-week trial, there was no such absurdity. Instead, the jury of eight men and four women shuffled quietly into a packed and hushed courtroom without looking at either defendant. Then the foreman stood up and forcefully read out ‘Guilty’ 34 times for Albert Pirro, and ‘Guilty’ 23 times and ‘Not Guilty’ 10 times for Anthony Pirro.” [New York Times, 6/22/00]
2020: Pirro Sought To Secure A Pardon For Her Ex-Husband From Trump And Was Upset When He Was Not Included On Trump’s Initial List Of Those Receiving Clemency. According to The Washington Post, "Smartmatic included many of the conversations in 468 pages of filings to bolster its contention that Pirro and other Fox hosts were determined to stay on Trump’s good side for a variety of motives. It said Pirro, a longtime friend of the president, sought to secure a pardon for her ex-husband, Albert Pirro. Convicted earlier of tax evasion and conspiracy, Albert Pirro was the last person Trump pardoned during his first term. The pardon was not assured, according to the filing, which chronicles the Fox News host’s fury when her ex-husband was initially not included on Trump’s list for clemency. She expressed her 'upset' about that to the president’s son Eric Trump and lashed out at the girlfriend of Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who received a pardon from Trump. Pirro called Kerik a 'selfish bastard,' and wrote in a text message, 'I DON’T CARE [ABOUT] ANYONE ELSE.'" [Washington Post, 8/19/25]
January 20, 2021: Trump Pardoned Al Pirro And More Than 140 Others In The Closing Minutes Of His Presidency. According to POLITICO, "In the closing minutes of his presidency, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon for Albert J. Pirro Jr., who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges. The pardon for Pirro, who has in the past worked for Trump, is the latest in a flurry of more than 140 last-minute pardons and commutations that the president issued overnight to loyalists, such as alt-right provocateur and former aide Steve Bannon, and celebrities, including rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. " [POLITICO, 1/20/21]
March 2019: Fox News Condemned Pirro’s Claim That Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Muslim Faith Was “Antithetical To The United States Constitution.” According to CNN, "In a rare rebuke of one of its star hosts, Fox News condemned Jeanine Pirro late Sunday for questioning whether Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Islamic religious beliefs stand in opposition to the US Constitution. 'We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar,' Fox News said in a statement. 'They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.' Controversial statements about Israel by Omar, a freshman Democratic lawmaker, have landed her in hot water with members of both parties. Pirro suggested on her Saturday show that Omar’s beliefs about Israel stem from her religion. Omar is Somali-American and a practicing Muslim who wears a religious head-covering called a hijab. 'Think about it: Omar wears a hijab,' Pirro said on her 'Justice' show on Fox News. 'Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?'" [CNN, 3/10/19]
2005: Jeanine Pirro Supported Medicaid Funding For Abortions, Gun Control Efforts, Affirmative Action Programs And Gay Civil Unions. According to The Hill, "In New York state, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro seems to be getting closer to running against her in the 2006 race for the Senate. Pirro has to be Hillary’s worst nightmare. She is a pro-choice woman who even backs Medicaid funding for abortion and a supporter of gun control, affirmative action and gay civil unions." [The Hill, 6/21/05]
2006: Jeanine Pirro Joined The New York City Pride Parade And Said She Was Proud Of Fighting To Pass A New York Hate Crimes Law That Included Sexual Orientation As A Protected Class. According to Gay City News, "Others were responding to Pirro’s enthusiastic waves and greetings when they waved or hollered back. Her high energy never flagged as she marched from the 54th Street to 23rd Street. When she was not rushing to greet a supporter, Pirro was dancing to music coming from a van in front of her contingent. At the parade’s reviewing stand just above 23rd Street, the announcer said 'I am honored, I am honored to welcome her today' and then added 'I want everybody to notice the heels. That puts her in the drag queen category.' The former Westchester County district attorney laughed loudly, said 'My mother is going to kill me,' turned to a nearby reporter and said, still laughing, 'Don’t write that down,' and finally said of drag queens 'They have that right, they have that right.' She is also the first candidate for statewide office from any political party to run television ads in which her support for the gay community is stated explicitly. Her backing for the queer community is longstanding. 'From the time I ran for judge, the first time I ran for DA, I have always worked with the gay and lesbian community,' she said during a September interview at her White Plains campaign headquarters. 'I have always sought their support.' As head of the state district attorneys association, Pirro was part of a broad coalition that championed New York’s hate crimes law and rejected efforts in the Republican-controlled state Senate to pass the law without sexual orientation as a protected class. 'I fought for that and I am proud of having fought for that,' she said. 'I have fought discrimination and hatred against gays. I have been stalwart in that fight.'" [Gay City News, 10/3/06]