From Suspension to Producer Calling Her a ‘Reckless Maniac’: Five Wild Jeanine Pirro Moments At Fox News
President Donald Trump tapped Judge Jeanine Pirro, a longtime loyalist and Fox News host, to be the interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, DC on Thursday – raising eyebrows across the political world.
Pirro replaced Ed Martin, whose embattled nomination had lost the support of Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) as his past praise of a white nationalist, views on January 6th, and his lack of prosecutorial experience resulted in widespread concerns and weeks of negative headlines. An interim U.S. Attorney can serve for 120 days without Senate confirmation.
Pirro, too, has been no stranger to controversy and was a central figure in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which the network settled in April of 2023 for $787.5 million. Pirro’s weekend show Justice with Judge Jeanine was ended abruptly in 2022 following Dominion’s lawsuit over the network platforming 2020 stolen election claims. Pirro became Trump’s 23rd hire from Fox News.
Pirro, who unlike Martin, has experience as a prosecutor from before her time at Fox. She served as an elected judge in Westchester County, New York, and later as the county’s district attorney. Pirro has long ties to Trump; her ex-husband, Albert Pirro, worked as a lawyer and lobbyist for Trump decades ago and was one of the last people to receive a pardon from Trump in the final moments of his first term. Pirro reportedly personally lobbied Trump’s team for the pardon.
Below are some of the wildest headlines from Pirro’s time at Fox News:
Pirro’s 2019 Fox Suspension For Questioning Ilhan Omar’s Patriotism
In March of 2019, Pirro was suspended from her weekend show over comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) religion.
“Think about it: Omar wears a hijab,” Pirro said. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”
The comments drew a quick rebuke from Fox News and resulted in her missing two subsequent broadcasts. “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments” and the views she expressed “do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly,” Fox said in a statement at the time.
Then-President Trump took notice of Pirro being off air and wrote on Twitter, “Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all-out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well.”
Pirro later acknowledged the suspension while talking to Sebastian Gorka in September of that year. “They suspended me,” the Justice host conceded, and discussed her at times rocky relationship with the network. “I’m not going to get fired. You know I’m worried that that suspension was the basis to tee up for anything I do wrong, they’ll fire me.”
Pirro’s Own Executive Producer Called Her a ‘Reckless Maniac’
The Dominion lawsuit made public countless emails and text messages between Fox News hosts, executives, and other staff members as part of discovery. One of the bombshell revelations in those emails was then-Fox News Media Senior Vice President David Clark slamming Pirro’s judgment. “I don’t trust her to be responsible. … Her guests are all going to say the election is being stolen, and if she pushes back at all, it will just be a token.” Clark, who oversaw her weekend show at the time, went on to call her a “reckless maniac” who is “nuts,” pushes “conspiracy theories,” and “should never be on live television.”
Emails Revealed Pirro Wasn’t Adhering to Internal Fox Fact Checks
Another major revelation to come out of the Dominion lawsuit was an email exchange that showed Fox News executives warned each other Pirro was ignoring internal fact checks.
Jerry Andrews, a Fox News vice president overseeing weekends, emailed Clark about Jeanine Pirro’s opening monologue on her show Justice with Judge Jeanine on Friday, November 20th, 2020.
“She’s refusing to drastically change the open despite the fact check. She says just because the case was dismissed does not legally mean that the affidavit can’t be true. I guess that is valid, but seems pretty desperate to me,” Andrews wrote ahead of the Saturday program.
Clark replied, “Understood.”
Fox News argued in court that Pirro’s November 21, 2020 show, referred to in the Clark-Adams email exchange highlighted by Dominion, only included Pirro recounting “what ‘the president’s lawyers’ were ‘alleging.’”
The Fox slide adds, “Pirro then merely posed a question many had been asking,” when she asked her audience, “Now, why was there an overnight popping of the vote tabulation that cannot be explained for Biden?”
Pirro’s Weekend Show Ends
Pirro lost her weekend show in 2022 and was given a seat on the top-rated show The Five. The move was widely considered a demotion — despite her new perch on Fox’s biggest show — and reporting from CNN media reporter Brian Stelter’s book Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy gives an indication as to why.
“‘Pirro was a problem,’ two sources said, using the same language and citing what Dominion found through the discovery process, namely that Pirro’s stubborn, slavish Trumpiness clashed with Fox execs who’d grown tired of her histrionic shenanigans. She submitted drafts of her opening monologue ahead of time, but when higher-ups dared to suggest tweaks, she was liable to accuse them of censorship,” Stelter wrote on the friction surrounding her show, adding:
She caused headaches week after week. To put it bluntly, ‘nobody wanted to deal with her,’ one of the sources said. Her own executive producer called her a ‘reckless maniac.’ Scott had an open conservative seat on The Five, so by moving Pirro there, she solved two problems at once.
Pirro was far easier to manage on a five-person talk show—she wasn’t writing monologues or picking guests anymore. She was also reaching a larger audience, five days a week, than she was on Saturdays. But it was pointed out to me that The Five is not the cushiest job for a seventy-something former prosecutor to hold. Pirro was now in the studio five days a week and sharing the stage with the likes of the grandstanding Jesse Watters. Solo-hosting once a week was definitely easier for her—but harder on the managers and lawyers.
At the time, an inside source with knowledge of the matter told Mediaite that “demotion” is completely inaccurate arguing “you don’t get demoted to the number one show in cable news that’s on 5 nights a week.” Pirro remained on The Five until this week, when she left the network for her new top role at the DOJ. The Five has long reigned as the top-rated show on cable news and began the year with a long streak of episodes raking in over 4 million average viewers. Fox News, in a statement, wished her well after 14 years at the network.
Pirro Calls For a ‘Cleansing’ of the FBI, Jailing of Officials
In December of 2017, Pirro called for a “cleansing” of the FBI, saying top officials don’t just need to be fired, but “taken out in cuffs.” As Trump’s top federal prosecutor in DC, she is now in charge of all felonies and national security-related crimes in the Capital.
During her monologue, Pirro argued that “examples had to be made” to fight back against a period of “corruption and lawlessness” that was attacking then-President Trump.
“There is a cleansing needed in our FBI and Department of Justice — it needs to be cleansed of individuals who should not just be fired. But who need to be taken out in cuffs,” Pirro demanded. She said those who need to be investigated include then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey, FBI official Peter Strzok, and now ex-Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Pirro Called For Trump’s First AG to Protect Trump or Resign
In September of 2018, Pirro raged against Trump’s then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia collusion investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Sessions initiated the investigation and allowed it to proceed without his interference, as was standard practice – something with incensed Pirro.
“What don’t you get?” Pirro said. “Have you no self-esteem, self-regard, self-respect? Where is your dignity? Why would you stay in a job where you are not wanted — a job you took under false pretenses, knowing you wouldn’t be able to do the complete job? And why do you continued to stay? No one elected you, Jeff, petitioned to make sure you got the job. You’re certainly not entitled to the job. You groveled and begged for the job and out of loyalty he gave it to you. You are so clueless. You don’t even know you are being used. You don’t even know you are nothing but a shill. In fact, the only constituency that wants you is the deep state that needs someone to protect their flank from investigation.”
“You need to do one of two things,” she added. “You need to resign immediately, because you’re not wanted, or put on your big boy pants and be a real attorney general.”
And in the special mention category… Pirro recently claimed on The Five that the U.S. Constitution does not include the right to due process for all persons in the U.S. The Fifth Amendment, of course, does include the clause:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
“No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” has long been understood to afford non-U.S. citizens due process rights, other than at times of war and national security issues are at stake.
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