Trump Issues Last-Minute Pardon: Jeanine Pirro’s Ex-Husband

 

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned Albert Pirro Jr., the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

The 72-year-old Pirro, a New York attorney who once represented Trump in real-estate deals, was sentenced to 29 months in prison in 2000 for federal tax evasion. He served 17 months before his release in 2002.

“I’m in shock,” Pirro said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “I went to bed last night having read the list assuming I wasn’t getting a pardon. It certainly is a nice act on the part of the president. It has been 20 years since I served my time and it allows me to engage again in public companies which I haven’t been able to do previously.”

Jeanine Pirro, who served at the time as the district attorney for Westchester County and as a Republican political figure in New York, thrived despite her husband’s legal troubles. She was reelected as he served his sentence and briefly ran for the Senate seat occupied by Hillary Clinton in 2006, but dropped out due to lackluster fundraising efforts. She was nominated as the party’s candidate for state attorney general instead, though she lost that race in the general election.

She subsequently spent a five-year stint with The CW Television Network before joining Fox in 2013, where she hosts the weekend show Justice with Judge Jeanine and has been vocal in supporting Trump throughout his term in the White House.

The couple separated in 2007, and divorced in 2013.

The pardon came in a final batch of 143 pardons and commutations Trump issued on Wednesday before he left office. He also pardoned former White House Stephen Bannon, who was charged with mail fraud and money laundering, and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, who were charged with federal weapons offenses.

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