pirro 2 jeanine

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reality tv judge show fox? husb pardon

bak 12 22 --> TWO 1 24 primary no partic reason, freq mma, ride or die trump

no merri

mma tag jeanine-pirro

SEE DOJ 3

SEE FAIL disbar?

2 26 pirro fail to get even one single grand juror on kelly

she got them in deep shit on dominion discovery, apparently not blunted lying? eg laptop

see violent crime border BS hype fear

note // eliminational rhet

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mma

tariffs --> golden age 4 8 25!

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chris hayes interv pirro signed warrent off on? ilhan raid 1026

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an 10 26

New York Times Justice Department and F.B.I. reporter Devlin Barrett says it takes more than a vengeance-driven president to prosecute his personal grievances against people he thinks have crossed him. It also takes enablers with law degrees who are willing to soak those degrees to pursue Trump’s agenda.

Barrett is ready to name-check the worst of them.

“At least eight current U.S. +attorneys have played prominent roles in pushing Mr. Trump’s grievances, often citing thin evidence that has subsequently led many of their cases to collapse,’ reports Barrett. “Three of those are running their offices without Senate confirmation.”

Minnesota AG Daniel Rosen is first up on Barrett’s hit list, being a man who has “aggressively pursued cases” against people in Minneapolis who protested the administration’s immigration policies and helped oversee investigations into Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat whom Trump has vowed to deport.

Rosen, said Barrett, is a commercial litigator who had never been a prosecutor, but who jumped to Trump’s marching orders when the president outright told him to “prosecute Ilhan Omar,” according to people familiar with the exchange. Federal agents, as part of an investigation overseen by Rosen’s office, conducted a recent search at Omar’s home in Washington.

John A. Sarcone III is grievance agent No. 2, according to Barrett, for leading “efforts to investigate New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, on the theory that she violated the civil rights of Mr. Trump.”

A federal judge blocked Sarcone in January from overseeing the investigation since he isn’t lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney, but Barrett says that hasn’t stopped him from sending federal prosecutors to try to wring evidence against James from her hairdresser.

Down in North Carolina, meanwhile, Dan Bishop — again, who has never been a prosecutor — has been tasked to pursue election integrity cases across the country as part of Trump’s hunt for “evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.” Barrett says he’s seized hundreds of boxes of ballots in Georgia to buttress Trump’s debunked claim of election fraud there.

In Los Angelas, Barrett says Bill Essayli “has pushed to charge cases against anti-Trump protesters, many of which fell apart in court.”

When Trump said “they are trying to steal that election” in California primary, Barrett said Essayli dutifully followed Trump’s orders and began a search, despite never being confirmed for his role. And according to people familiar with the matter, Essayli insisted on charging a man who had provided face shields to anti-ICE protesters, despite objections from some members of his staff, said Barrett. Essayli’s charges got thrown from court.

And then there’s Jason A. Reding Quiñones in Miami, who has overseen “a centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign,” according to Barrett, a “grand conspiracy” by officials in the Biden and Obama administrations to pursue Trump. While Trump’s crusade has brought few indictments, Barrett said the crusade itself has “end[ed] the prosecutorial careers of many of the lawyers assigned to it.”

“The first two U.S. attorneys were forced out, having displeased senior Trump administration officials by concluding criminal charges were not warranted,” said Barrett.

District of Columbia AG Jeanine Pirro has pursued her own indictments of the president’s critics and “others invoking his ire, even when some of her prosecutors say the evidence does not support charges,” said Barrett.

Her list of failures are racking up, he added, including the indictment of David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete, for felony destruction of the Reflecting Pool.

“In dropping the case, Ms. Pirro’s office claimed that Department of Interior officials withheld key details that would have changed prosecutors’ view of the evidence,” said Barrett. “However, she and her investigators knew even before they went into the grand jury that there was at least one significant evidentiary flaw in their case and barreled ahead anyway, according to court filings by Mr. Hearn’s lawyers.”

And a federal judge also trampled her efforts to subpoena former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell, saying Ms. Pirro’s office had offered “no evidence whatsoever” that he had “committed any crime other than displeasing the president.”

North Carolina’s W. Ellis Boyle is another Trump agent who brought criminal charges against former F.B.I. director James Comey — for posting a photo of seashells.

“Of all the retribution-tinged indictments and investigations that have marked the second Trump term, none has more alarmed or angered longtime Justice Department officials than the one over the seashells photo,” said Barrett. “Senior Trump administration officials tried and failed in mid-2025 to find a prosecutor willing to charge Mr. Comey with threatening the president” with beach photos.

Finally, there’s Chicago AG Andrew Boutros, who Barrett says has managed to flub two dozen of more than 30 criminal cases filed against people for crimes like assaulting a federal agent or resisting a federal agent during the operation.

“I thought it was a crock,” one grand juror told prosecutors. “And I still think it is.”

And even when Boutros nabbed an indictment, a federal judge found the office had mishandled the case and dismissed the charges.

Boutros has yet to be confirmed as AG by the Senate.

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an 10 26

Jeanine Pirro threw FBI director under the bus in new case he demanded

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an 8 26

Federal judge issues huge slap to Trump’s domestic spying attempt

President Donald Trump’s revenge scheme against various individuals he has publicly deemed political enemies is officially defunct -- at least according to several sources, in no small part because of his failure to successfully prosecute a man he wrongly accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. Indeed, that trend is even extending to cases that would normally be considered airtight.

The Daily Mail's Charlie Spiering reported on Thursday that the citizens of Washington DC are treating Trump’s Justice Department like an organization which deliberately targets innocent people rather than a good faith actor, and they are responding accordingly. When they targeted Olympic canoeist David Hearn by incorrectly saying he vandalized the Reflecting Pool, for example, the case was seemingly rejected for that reason.

“The bigger problem now is that [USAG Jeanine Pirro's] office has struggled to land seemingly airtight cases, with Washington's jury pool deeply skeptical of the administration's prosecutions, say sources,” Spiering wrote. “Juries have twice deadlocked over two suspected MS-13 ringleaders, sending both trials to mistrials this week. The deadlocked juries are a sign that there is deep skepticism surrounding Pirro and the Trump administration among DC citizens.”

Those defeats seem bound to continue unabated, sources tell the Daily Mail, despite Pirro's demonstrated willingness to take controversial or outright false cases to trial.

“Jury nullification is a serious problem in DC,' a legal source following proceedings in the city said,” Spiering observed. “Jury nullification is when jurors deliver a not guilty verdict even though they believe the defendant has broken the law.”

He added that this is indicative of a deeper systemic issue.

“The deadlocked juries are a sign that there is deep skepticism surrounding Pirro and the Trump administration among DC citizens,” Spiering said. “Those defeats will likely continue, sources tell the Daily Mail, despite her willingness to take cases to trial.”

He added, “'Jury nullification is a serious problem in DC,' a legal source following proceedings in the city said. Jury nullification is when jurors deliver a not guilty verdict even though they believe the defendant has broken the law.”

The Daily Mail explained that Pirro ultimately kept her job despite her recent failures by convincing Trump of the uphill battle involved in prosecuting these thin cases.

“During the closed-door Oval Office meeting, she personally detailed the Reflecting Pool case evidence to him,” Spiering stated. “The President was angry but understanding, a source familiar with the meeting previously told the Daily Mail.”

Apparently Trump has cooled off toward Pirro, perhaps recognizing on some level that the Justice Department has undermined its own credibility by pursuing weak and blatantly political cases.

“'I don't think that she's on thin ice now, I just think Trump was [furious] about the case,' another source told the Daily Mail. 'It was kind of a dumb case. It wasn't going to go anywhere and she was fully honest with the President about it,’” Spiering reported.

The Washington Examiner reported earlier this week that DC residents are so outraged at Trump’s political warfare that they are deliberately joining grand juries and receiving instructions on how to refuse to pursue cases the president is clearly trying to prosecute for political reasons. Similarly, people throughout America are joining forces to revolt against Trump’s attempts to rig the upcoming midterm elections.

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an 8 26

Trump is rumored to be furious and considering firing US Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her decision not to pursue a criminal case against Olympian David Hearn — and her possible attempt to save face could “spectacularly backfire,” according to one legal expert.

“Last week, WaPo reported that a “special grand jury” has been empaneled in D.C.,” Lawfare’s Anna Bower wrote on X on Monday. “Could U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro use that grand jury to release a damaging report against Trump’s critics?”

Bower added, “If that’s her galaxy-brain plan, it’s not a very good one.”

In her Lawfare analysis on special grand juries, Bower pointed out that “turning one loose to investigate purported crimes can, on occasion, spectacularly backfire.” A specialized tool created through the Organized Crime Act of 1970 to make it easier for prosecutors to address complex organized crime cases, special grand juries are like regular grand juries in that they both operate in secrecy and are empowered to subpoena documents, require testimony and issue indictments. They are also mandatory to be empaneled every 18 months in judicial districts with over four million people, although they can be used under distinct circumstances in smaller districts as well. Special grand juries can also be convened for up to 36 months, twice as long as regular grand juries.

Perhaps most notably, special grand juries are allowed to issue a public report at the end of their time, which regular grand juries cannot do. According to Bower, this makes them less potent as a political weapon against Trump’s critics.

“Beyond the statutory limitations, the practical realities of this particular special grand jury make the idea of using its report as a political weapon look even less plausible,” Bower wrote. “A report can only be submitted with the concurrence of a majority of the grand jurors. And this is, after all, a D.C. grand jury. Pirro’s office has already had a remarkably difficult time persuading D.C. jurors to go along with some of its more politically charged prosecutions.”

She added, “And the judge who will likely decide whether any report becomes public is hardly a pushover. That task would fall to Chief Judge James Boasberg, who has already had occasion to criticize Pirro’s use of grand jury powers. Earlier this year, he quashed subpoenas issued in Pirro’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, concluding that the government had produced ‘essentially zero evidence’ of a crime and that the subpoenas were issued for an improper purpose."

Overall, this caused Bower to conclude that if Pirro is convening a special grand jury in the hope of pleasing Trump by continuing to pursue his political adversaries, she may be making a serious mistake.

“All of which is to say: If Pirro’s objective is simply to conduct a long-running criminal investigation, a special grand jury may give her a useful tool,” Bower wrote. “But if the objective is to manufacture a public document condemning Trump’s political enemies, the tool looks considerably less formidable. The statute was not written to give prosecutors a mechanism for publishing accusations they cannot otherwise persuade a grand jury to charge.” Ultimately “if you give a grand jury the opportunity to speak, you cannot count on it to tell the story you want it to tell.”

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AN 7 26

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro made a significant enough mistake that one legal expert says was incredibly stupid.

A bombshell report on Monday revealed that the government's own witness in the David Hearn case over the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Hearn is being accused of grabbing the pool lining with both hands and ripping it up.

The DOJ's witness revealed that the damage the DOJ alleges came from Hearn was already there before Hearn arrived.

An even bigger bungle, however, comes from an observation from writer and lawyer Amee Vanderpool, who runs the "Shero" Substack.

Citing an NBC News report about the case, saying that the person who indicated the pool was already damaged spoke to the grand jury about the damage prior to Hearn.

Beyond the fact that it sinks the DOJ's case, Vanderpool explained that by "using this" information, lawyers for Hearn "can now get all of the Reflecting Pool repair documents (and all documentation that is missing) in disclosure."

Hearn's lawyers are asking for information about the disclosure and legal instructions grand jurors were given. They want to see the trial minutes, which will detail the dialogue line by line.

In a different case involving six activists and politicians who protested outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, it was discovered that the grand jury was being given conflicting information that wasn't factual and that the prosecutors were talking about defendants as if they were already found to be guilty. Anyone who looked to be wavering was excused from the jury.

It's unclear whether the DOJ did the same in this case, but Hearn's lawyers having access to all of the information may reveal what happened in the grand jury as well as a slate of other details.

Hearn's lawyers will be able to see documents involving the Reflecting Pool contractors, why they were chosen in a no-bid contract and why the costs were so much higher than President Donald Trump said they would be.

"Jeanine Pirro is an idiot to pursue this," said Vanderpool.

Last week, the judge in the case warned the DOJ that all of the workers looking at fixes to the pool and tearing up the liner were tampering with evidence.

“Non-preservation,” the judge told the DOJ, “the government does it at its own peril.”

One of Hearn's long-time friends, Adam Van Grack, who once served as chair of the U.S. Olympic governing body for canoe and kayak sports, said that going after Hearn was a mistake.

"The U.S. government could not have picked a worse person to be the headliner felony defendant in this trial," Van Grack told The Atlantic.

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BULWARK SOMMER 7 26

TRUMP’S PRIMETIME ADDRESS Thursday is shaping up to be a grab bag of conspiracy theories, all of them intended to help Republicans take control of the midterms. He might declare that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are somehow fake senators; or announce a national emergency on voter fraud. The latest reporting suggests Trump will claim China tried to steal the 2020 election.

Whatever Trump does, it’ll be because of John Solomon—a star conservative reporter who is, somehow, also a White House staffer. For nearly a decade, Solomon has had a hand in the creation of nearly every major MAGA grievance narrative, from the Russia investigation to Ukraine to 2020 election fraud. Solomon has a pretty clear M.O.: He’ll spin a story that seems like a massive exposé, getting it trumpeted on Fox News and throughout the right-wing media ecosystem before it has a chance to deflate under scrutiny, as it usually does.

Now in his gig as a short-term White House staffer, Solomon has been digging up the raw material necessary for both prosecuting Trump’s enemies and the expected attempt at electoral chicanery.

Yet this narrative impresario and his brand of quasi-journalism remain largely unknown outside the world of right-wing media.

In 2007, when Solomon was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review was already complaining that his stories amounted to the “John Solomon special”: front-page revelations that, when scrutinized, turned out to be little more than a “steady stream of mediocrity.”

Now, thanks to his role in the Trump administration, Solomon has a chance to work that magic on a much larger scale.

Typically, MAGA muckrakers are liars or crackpots, like Mike Lindell, or that one rogue falconer (but not the one you’re thinking of). Compared to these folks, Solomon is a veritable Walter Cronkite. He has a serious journalistic background after working for Post and the Associated Press, and he dresses in ties and navy suits. His veneer of seriousness provides a valuable service for the MAGAverse. Watching him can almost feel like watching a grizzled mainstream investigative journalist who just happens to validate Trump’s obsessions.

A story from the final days of the first Trump administration shows how much Solomon lives in the Trumpworld pocket. The day before Joe Biden’s inauguration, then-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows called Solomon to the White House to review a binder of newly declassified files from the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into Trump and Russia—just the kind of document handout Solomon loves.

Meadows wanted Solomon to publish the contents of the binder on Inauguration Day. Solomon’s staffers at his website, Just The News, scrambled to scan them all. Then a new envelope arrived for Solomon, with new files “he was permitted to write about,” according to a lawsuit Solomon later filed against the Justice Department.

Unfortunately for Solomon, the whole plan got botched when a White House staffer recalled the files for further redaction. The binder disappeared back into the new Biden administration. Solomon’s fervor for getting access to them again led to a special favor from Trump, who named Solomon as one of his personal representatives at the National Archives, where he would have the freedom to again pursue the story (to give you a sense of Solomon’s perceived reliability to the ex-president, the only other person designated as Trump’s representative at the time was Kash Patel). It was a decision intended to redound to mutual benefit, and sure enough, Solomon eventually published the files in April 2025.

HOW DID SOLOMON WIND UP as Trump’s favorite journo? After leaving the Post in 2008, Solomon moved between journalism nonprofits and conservative media for a while, powered by a personality once described as “charming and garrulous and brimming with swagger.”

He reached a new level of prominence on the right when he became an executive at The Hill in 2017. His portfolio there was superhuman: simultaneously launching a TV channel, drumming up ad business, and filing news and opinion articles. As you might expect, it was a situation rife with conflicts of interest, with one staffer warning that Solomon was up to “reputation-killing stuff.”1

Solomon’s first big moment at The Hill came with his coverage of the Uranium One faux-scandal, during which he heavily insinuated—but did not come close to proving—that Hillary Clinton had approved the sale of rights to a key American uranium reserve to Russia in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation. At the time, Republican anxieties about Trump’s own Russia ties were in overdrive, so Solomon’s articles gave them the tantalizing feeling that the “real” Russia scandal was that Clinton was the true Putin patsy.

In March 2019, Solomon waded into even murkier waters: the bizarre series of events that led to Trump’s impeachment over efforts to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. Solomon inexplicably began to target American ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in articles for The Hill, portraying her as disloyal to Trump and weak on corruption. A month after Solomon’s series began, Trump fired Yovanovitch.

House Democrats later alleged that Solomon’s columns were part of a smear campaign run by Rudy Giuliani and a web of right-leaning Ukrainians and Americans, in a complex deal meant to convince Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens.

Solomon met regularly with figures involved in digging up dirt on the Bidens. The group became known as the BLT Team, named after the BLT Prime restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in Washington where they met. The gang included Giuliani, the prolific Ukrainian-American schemer Lev Parnas, and husband-and-wife legal team Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. He even shared a draft of a story with the group before publication—a major journalistic taboo.

DiGenova and Toensing seem to have made something of a cottage industry out of this. They represented at least one Ukrainian involved in the scheme. They had also, perhaps not coincidentally, represented a key Uranium One “whistleblower.” And they were also Solomon’s own lawyers, even though he used them and their clients as sources in his articles without disclosing that relationship. Once again, all of this flies in the face of journalistic standards.

Conflicts of interest aside, much of Solomon’s reporting on Ukraine was simply wrong, according to experts on the byzantine world of Ukrainian politics. Even as Solomon became a regular on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show (and used that relationship to make himself valuable to the BLT Team, according to Parnas), an internal Fox News research document I reported on at the time acknowledged that Solomon was involved in a Ukrainian “disinformation campaign.”

“It was primarily non-truths and non-sequiturs,” one State Department noted of Solomon’s reporting during the first Trump impeachment investigation.

Solomon left The Hill in October 2019. The newspaper skewered him in an internal review, with some of the editor’s notes added to his Ukraine’s articles running nearly as long as the articles themselves.

DESPITE QUESTIONS ABOUT SOLOMON’S credibility during his run at the Hill, his star on the right continued to rise. In 2020, he launched Just The News, a conservative news outlet where he has run pro-Trump stories without even the thin layers of editorial oversight he faced at prior media outlets.

Solomon is also becoming a right-wing media mogul, adding minor conservative brands The Post Millennial and (the historically significant) Human Events to his holdings in November. In June 2025, the publisher of RealClearPolitics accused Solomon of convincing some of that website’s donors to withdraw their support in an attempt to soften it up for a takeover, too.

IAF

Solomon also helped launch and continues to provide office space to a foundation that doles out millions of dollars to a network of conservative media outlets and think tanks, including his own site. As Mother Jones reported, few if any of those funding connections are disclosed in Solomon’s journalism when he cites groups that have benefited from the nonprofit’s largesse. Mother Jones describes the sort of ideologically driven news sites in the foundation’s network as “pink slime,” a name that comes from “by-products added as filler to ground beef.”

But Solomon’s biggest honor came this summer, when Trump made him a special government employee tasked with helping “identify some documents, some secrets” to be declassified and released to the public. He is eligible to serve in the role for up to 130 days. Solomon, who said he’s not being paid for the White House declassification work, announced in June that he was stepping down as Just The News’s editor-in-chief, although he continues to host his show and publish articles on the Just The News website.

Solomon isn’t the only member of the BLT Team joining the administration. In April, diGenova was sworn in as a counselor to the Justice Department operating out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where he’s reportedly working with a grand jury to indict Trump critics like former CIA director John Brennan. The judge overseeing the proceedings—and making decisions on whether to approve things like subpoenas for witness testimony or documents—is infamous Trump loyalist Aileen Cannon, who ran interference for the president during special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents investigation between Trump’s terms in office. Earlier this spring, Cannon blocked the release of Smith’s final report on his investigation’s findings.

Toensing came out of retirement in May to be sworn in as a “deputy chief for civil rights in the criminal section” in the same prosecutor’s office, according to a statement filed in court by District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

“Ms. Toensing has extensive obligations in that [Florida] District related to a grand jury proceeding,” Pirro wrote, suggesting that Toensing too is working on some kind of urgent grand jury case against perceived Trump enemies.

Solomon has openly admitted that his role declassifying government documents is central to helping that same grand jury, suggesting the once-ridiculed group involved in crafting the anti-Biden Ukraine narrative is now helping Trump pursue his enemies through the Justice Department.

Referring to the administration’s push to declassify files about investigations into the president, Solomon told Benny Johnson in April that “those documents will help this prosecutorial team in Miami” by taking away the need for the sorts of secret and time-intensive processes that would otherwise be needed to make use of them in court.

But Solomon’s decades-old reputation for letting down his audience is starting to reach conservatives, too. Popular conspiracy theory blog Conservative Treehouse has grown skeptical of Solomon’s promises, even adding a bolded warning label of sorts to a preview of Trump’s Thursday speech so readers wouldn’t get too excited.

“Caution should be noted as newly appointed Special Government Employee John Solomon is responsible for the content,” the post read.

Emerald Robinson, an anchor at Mike Lindell’s online channel, wasn’t excited either.

“LOL why would anybody trust John Solomon based on his record?” she wrote on X.

When you’ve lost Lindell’s crew…

REF 4? CT DOC TOE 40K CS 200 PP VAUGHN INDEX?

Status Report – #25 in TOENSING v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (D.D.C., 1:24-cv-02444) – CourtListener.com

JEANINE FERRIS PIRRO United States Attorney By: /s/ Thomas W. Duffey THOMAS W. DUFFEY Assistant United States Attorney 601 D Street, NW Washington, DC 20530 (202) 252-2510 Attorneys for the United States of America /s/ Matthew D. Hardin MATTHEW D. HARDIN, D.C. Bar # 1032711 Hardin Law Office 101 Rainbow Drive # 11506 Livingston, TX 77399 (202) 802-1948 MatthewDHardin@protonmail.com

Now comes the Plaintiff, Victoria Toensing, and the Defendant, the United States Department of Justice (“Department”), by and through undersigned counsel, and hereby submit this Joint Status Report pursuant to the Court’s May 27, 2026, Minute Order. This report follows a June 18, 2026 meeting of the parties and their counsel at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the meeting were undersigned counsel, Plaintiff Victoria Toensing and her husband, Joseph diGenova, and Patrice Parker Hale from the Department of Justice.

Defendant’s Statement The Department represents that it has completed its review and has processed in excess of 41,000 pages. There remain outstanding 29 pages that need to be returned from the Office of Information Policy, which are expected to be returned by the middle of next month. The Department anticipates providing a Vaughn index to Plaintiff addressing approximately 1,000 pages withheld in full pursuant to FOIA Exemptions, and certain partially redacted records to which Plaintiff has conveyed its challenges. This Vaughn will be provided to Plaintiff by July 31, 2026, as contemplated by this Court’s May 18, 2026 Minute Order. The Department is not claiming that records at issue in this case are classified.

....

Plaintiff’s Statement Plaintiff appreciates the opportunity to confer with the Department and its counsel on June 18, 2026. As previously indicated, Ms. Toensing recently began serving as Deputy Chief for Civil Rights in the Criminal Section, of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Ms. Toensing has extensive obligations in that District related to a grand jury proceeding.

The brief postponement of the conferral allowed Ms. Toensing to better serve our country’s pressing interests in effective and efficient criminal justice. The June 18, 2026 meeting in D.C. was productive in terms of allowing the parties to better understand their respective positions and to agree on a path forward for this litigation. As indicated at ECF No. 22, Plaintiff has received less than 200 pages of records, such that Plaintiff has difficulty understanding how 41,000 pages were processed with so few pages produced. The Department has now clarified that it withheld in full approximately 1,000 pages of records. Still, the Department apparently asserts that approximately 40,000 pages of records were non-responsive to Plaintiff’s FOIA request. Plaintiff reserves the right to challenge the accuracy of Defendant’s assertions as to the volume of responsive records on summary judgment.

...

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AN 7 26

Olympian David Hearn will appear in court on Thursday morning alongside one of President Donald Trump's biggest legal foes: Norm Eisen.

One of the co-founders of CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), Trump has raged about Eisen for years as he loses case after case against the former ethics czar. Trump once referred to Eisen as a “major sleazebag” and “the Lawfare King and Color Revolution Expert” in Truth Social posts. At one point, Trump even blasted CREW, complaining, “Everything I read is Norm Eisen.” According to Trump, “You don’t get much lower than him.”

Eisen responded by saying that it's clear Trump is obsessed with him.

Eisen has taken up a high-profile case in which the administration is accused of trying to make Hearn the "scapegoat" for their own failures around the Reflecting Pool.

This is the "latest scandal of scapegoating and blame shifting and the administration's own failures on the Reflecting Pool," Eisen said in a video chat with former prosecutor Joyce Vance. "They've charged, with a felony, our client with The Washington Litigation Group, my wonderful co-counsel Mary Dorman, Davy Hearn, the Olympic canoeist."

He asked Vance how, as a former prosecutor and former U.S. attorney, she would have handled something like this. She explained that in cases like this, she looks through the lens of someone who not only ran a U.S. attorney's office but also spent a decade prosecuting criminal cases.

In "a properly functioning DOJ," she said, something like this would have been investigated by the National Parks Service before being handed to the Justice Department. In her experience, the NPS typically handles things like smoking cannabis on federal lands, a relatively low-level felony. NPS doesn't "do big criminal cases," she said.

"Your job as a prosecutor is to consider whether that case is significant enough to merit becoming a federal felony," Vance continued. "This case doesn't pass the smell test on that ground, but it also has another major flaw, which is evidence."

Secretary of the Interior where he was asked directly about the Reflecting Pool and asserted, "It didn't peel off. It was — it was — there was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been seven arrests." At no point did police find a box cutter on Hearn, who was cycling down to the mall in his bicycle shorts and jersey.

A video from Emily Miller of the arrest shows Hearn talking about the pool scandal being "funny," and later he relayed that he accidently hit the hose from the giant cleaner.

Hearn has said publicly, “I did not remove, I did not damage, I did not rip, tear, break, destroy or harm any part of the Reflecting Pool."

According to him, he dipped his hand into the pool to feel the coating on the bottom, which was supposed to be "American Flag blue."

Vance explained that, unlike in many other cases, there was no grand jury that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro went to for an indictment. They merely filed the case in superior court, which has "less rigorous standards." Pirro has failed to indict several people by going to grand juries in D.C.

In her press conference, Pirro alleged an NPS employee witnessed Hearn willfully and "violently" ripping up about two square feet of the pool's newly installed liner using his bare hands. She asserted to reporters questioning her about evidence, “He damaged the pool! He damaged this pool!”

Pirro's charging document also doesn't say anything about "violently" doing anything. It claims Hearn “ripped a piece of the recently installed blue pool sealant” or “pulled up and removed the bottom liner with both hands."

Miller's video shows Hearn took off one of his padded cycling gloves to put his hand in. He pulled his hand out of the pool and put the glove back on in the video.

"The U.S attorney should have stepped in and said, folks we have a lot bigger fish to fry," Vance said. "But even if this case was an important one, it doesn't have the evidence. I mean, Norm, that's my issue with this case. I just don't see how the government proves its case. I suspect that they'll do everything that they can to keep it from going to trial they've made their splash indicting the case now they're going to try to stay as far away from a courtroom as they can."

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AN 5 26

Fox News' ongoing efforts to stop the lawsuit by electronic voting equipment company Smartmatic failed this week when it lost its appeal for a "stay" and a motion to "vacate" the case.

A stay is a temporary pause of the lawsuit and a motion to vacate is a request for the judge to cancel all previous court orders.

Smartmatic is suing over what it alleges were false allegations about its electronic voting equipment in the wake of the 2020 election. Each part of the case has exposed details about what Fox staff and on-air talent have said under oath that could undermine Fox's defense.

Fox has been working to stop the lawsuit every step of the way, including fighting interviews with its team, the discovery of emails and text messages.

“Smartmatic welcomes the appellate court’s decision denying Fox’s latest attempt to delay this case. For years, courts have repeatedly rejected Fox’s efforts to avoid accountability," the company said in a statement to AlterNet. "The facts have not changed: Fox knowingly spread false claims about Smartmatic, causing severe harm to the company and undermining public trust in elections, and has never apologized. We look forward to continuing toward trial and presenting the truth before a jury.”

In a ruling published Thursday, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, wrote that they "denied the motion of defendants Fox Corporation, Fox News Network, LLC, DebiDobbs, as Administrator of the Estate of Lou Dobbs, deceased, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro to vacate, in part, Judicial Hearing Officer Alan Marin’s October 14, 2025 report, and denied their separate motion to stay the action pending resolution of aseparate criminal proceeding against plaintiff SGO Corporation Limited (Smartmatic) and vacate the Note of Issue ..."

Conservative outlets are painting it as a success because the court also allowed for additional discovery to move forward. The report said that Fox will be allowed to obtain any information from Smartmatic about the impact of a recent case against the company brought by President Donald Trump's Justice Department.

The additional discovery was granted only after Fox lost its case to pause the suit. The court docket shows several dozen requests that Fox has made over the past year. While they have succeeded in drawing out the case and delaying a trial, they haven't been successful in putting an end to the case.

Smartmatic has alleged that attacks on the company by Fox and its on-air talent after the 2020 election significantly harmed its reputation. So, they sued for defamation, alleging $2.7 billion in damages. Court filings have cited numerous examples of Fox News personalities who knew that Trump lost the 2020 election. Still continued to repeat conspiracy theories about it and went further, falsely alleging Smartmatic was in on a huge international conspiracy that included Venezuela.

Smartmatic's lawsuit was filed long before the Justice Department filed charges.

Newsmax and One America Newssettled with Smartmatic, but the two continue to fightover the defamation suit. Smartmatic posted documents in November that revealed the testimony of a finance and damages expert.

Financial expert Christopher James submitted a report on Feb. 15, 2024, that used a formula to calculate the damages he feels Fox Corp. caused in its ongoing attacks against Smartmatic. The document, released at the time, was a June 12, 2025, update to that initial report. The Smartmatic expert testified that the damages from 2021-2025 totaled $526.2 million in lost profits and $165.4 million in expected profits from U.S. markets.

Last November, *TheGuardian*reported that President Donald Trump's Justice Department would begin an investigation into conspiracy theories that allege Venezuela had a role in somehow rigging the election.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has complained that after his case with Smartmatic, he's in financial ruin.

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MEHTA J6 IMMUNITY?

AN 4 26

Trump DOJ official’s 'losing streak' isn’t letting up - Alternet.org

A major bombshell from the Donald Trump-era U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) came on Friday morning, April 24, when the news broke that federal prosecutor and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was dropping the criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. MS NOW's Ken Dilanian, in response, described the news as a "180-degree surrender," telling his colleague Ana Cabrera, "What Jeanine Pirro is essentially conceding here is that there's no criminal case. There never was."

In an April 27 column, MS NOW's Steve Benen describes the Powell investigation's demise as a major humiliation for Pirro — whose "losing streak" at DOJ, he argues, is going from bad to worse.

"To be sure, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., didn't want to drop the case," Benen says of Pirro's decision. "Two weeks ago, two prosecutors from Pirro's office showed up without invitation or advance notice at Federal Reserve headquarters seeking a tour of the construction site. A week later, the former Fox News host said she would forge ahead with a case against Powell. Pirro was, however, quickly overwhelmed by reality."

The "Rachel Maddow Show" producer continues, "The politically motivated investigation obviously had no merit; a federal judge had already quashed the Justice Department's subpoenas, emphasizing the inconvenient fact that prosecutors 'produced essentially zero evidence' — and the longer the baseless case continued, the more it threatened to delay confirmation of Trump’s new Fed chair nominee."

Conservative Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), an outspoken critic of Pirro's Powell investigation, vowed to oppose the nomination of Kevin Warsh as a replacement for the Fed chair — whose term ends in mid-May — unless the probe ended.

"Short on options," Benen observes, "Pirro threw in the towel on Friday, and Kevin Warsh's odds of confirmation approached 100 percent soon after…. Pirro's failed effort against Powell was humiliating, but it coincided with a similarly humiliating effort to indict Democratic veterans in Congress who advised service members to follow the law, which coincided with a separate failed criminal investigation into (former President) Joe Biden. In fact, Pirro's office has lost so many closely watched cases, with such regularity, that it's been challenging to keep up. After the president fired (former U.S. Attorney General) Pam Bondi earlier this month, it sparked speculation as to whom Trump might choose as the next attorney general, and there was a round of chatter about whether Pirro would be among the top contenders."

Benen adds, "The odd thing is, it’s far from clear whether her repeated failures make her any less appealing to the White House — or more. On one hand, Trump rejects those seen as 'losers'; on the other, the hapless U.S. attorney keeps going after his perceived foes, indifferent to merit or propriety, which is exactly the kind of quality the president seems to be looking for at Main Justice."

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SHE AND TODD B AUDTIONING FOR AG?

OMFG

Justice Department moves to toss seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders who were sentenced to prison terms for leading members of the far-right extremist groups in attacking the U.S. Capitol to keep President Donald Trump in office over five years ago.

Trump commuted the prison sentences of several Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders last January in a sweeping act of clemency for all 1,500-plus defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

The request by the Justice Department would go a step further and erase all the convictions for extremist group leaders, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who didn’t receive pardons last January.

The move to abandon the convictions represented a stunning reversal from the Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts as a crucial victory in its bid to hold accountable those responsible for what prosecutors described as an attack on the heart of American democracy. It’s part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack and downplay the violence carried out by the mob of Trump supporters that left more than 100 police officers injured.

AP correspondent Ben Thomas reports the Justice Department is seeking the dismissal of seditious conspiracy convictions over the Capitol Riot.

In court filings, prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate the convictions so that the government can permanently dismiss the indictments.

Right-wing influencers pushed the Trump admin to ignore judges. New reporting shows that's what's happening — especially in immigration cases.

Since the beginning of Trump’s second administration, right-wing media have encouraged an “all-out war” on judges and dismissed the “so-called rights of illegals”

Written by Gideon Taaffe & Jack Winstanley

Published 02/18/26

Recent reporting shows how the Trump administration — particularly the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — “has slow-walked or outright defied” numerous court orders as it continues its nationwide crackdown against immigrants.

Politico highlighted several instances of judges speaking against the Trump administration over its defiance of judges and efforts to undermine due process for immigrants. The New York Times reported in January that ICE has violated nearly 100 court orders, and last summer, The Washington Post examined over a hundred cases on various matters and found “the administration is accused of defying or frustrating court oversight in 57.”

Meanwhile, since the beginning of Trump’s second administration, right-wing media figures have repeatedly encouraged a hostile approach to the courts, attacking judges who challenge Trump’s actions, calling for judges to be impeached, and encouraging the administration to deny noncitizens their due process rights.

## Recent reporting shows the Trump administration’s continued defiance of judges and efforts to undermine due process

- Politico reported that ICE officials have “slow-walked or outright defied judges’ orders,” including some demanding the release of people detained by the agency, and The New York Times reported that one judge says ICE has violated nearly 100 court orders.One Minnesota judge said that ICE’s delay in releasing people from custody is a “constitutional injury,” adding, “The individuals affected are people. The overwhelming majority of the hundreds seen by this Court have been found to be lawfully present as of now in the country. They live in their communities. Some are separated from their families.” Politico had previously reported the allegation that ICE officials “simply don’t respond” to Department of Justice requests to cooperate with investigations and ongoing legal proceedings. Politico, [2/10/26, 2/4/26; The New York Times, 1/28/26]

- ICE also undermines due process for detainees by shuffling them around the country to make it difficult for them to sue the government for their release, according to Politico. Detainees generally need to sue from the district where they are held in order to be released, but as Politico notes, “that gets complicated when ICE rushes detainees out of state and bounces them around the country while they’re attempting to hire lawyers or decide where to file lawsuits.” The Vera Institute has reported that the Trump administration also undermined due process by detaining people as they appear for their legal obligations while attending court hearings and check-ins with ICE. Politico, [2/10/26; The Vera Institute, 1/20/26]

- Politico reported that judges have called the administration’s actions a “pattern of obfuscation” and an effort “to frustrate judicial review” and identified at least 347 judges “who have rejected the administration’s detention policy.”One judge rebuked the administration’s movement of a detainee, saying, “There is something particularly craven about transferring a nursing refugee mother out-of-state.” Politico, [2/10/26, 1/26/26]

- The Washington Post reported on the Trump administration defying judges on topics outside of immigration too, examining 165 lawsuits and finding “the administration is accused of defying or frustrating court oversight in 57 of those cases — almost 35 percent.” The Post identified cases where the Trump administration defied judges by continuing to lay off federal employees, refusing to unfreeze appropriated funds, and targeting transgender people in the military. The Washington Post, [7/21/25]

## Right-wing media figures have continually called for the Trump administration to defy “activist judges” and ignore “lawless and dangerous” court orders

- The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh declared that there “needs to be an all-out war at this point against activist judges” opposing Trump’s actions. Walsh additionally argued that “unelected judges” were “trying to override, not just the president, but the will of the people.” The Daily Wire, *The Matt Walsh Show*, [3/19/25]

- SiriusXM radio host Megyn Kelly claimed that “the Trump administration is not going to have a choice” but to ignore the courts. She added: “They're trying to create a constitutional crisis is, I guess, the point I'm making.” SiriusXM, *The Megyn Kelly Show*, [2/13/25]

- Right-wing commentator Dan Bongino, who served as co-deputy director of the FBI under Trump, argued that the Trump administration “should ignore” federal district Judge John McConnell’s court order to restore frozen federal funds.Bongino, who mistakenly said McConnell is from New York rather than Rhode Island, said, “This judge is clearly making up powers he does not have,” adding, “He does not have power to demand the president spend money.” McConnell had issued a permanent injunction barring Trump from dismantling several federal agencies and gutting staff from others and had blocked a separate move by the administration to peg funds for road and highway maintenance to state compliance with immigration demands. Rumble, *The Dan Bongino Show*, [2/11/25; Rhode Island Current, 11/24/25; Politico, 11/4/25]

- On CNN, conservative contributor Scott Jennings suggested the president may need to “defy” judges who order his administration to comply with the law. He asked: “Should the president, the singular president, should he have to share the presidency with 300 district court judges? No. Absolutely not.” CNN, *NewsNight with Abby Phillip*, [2/10/25]

- Right-wing influencer account “Amuse” wrote of McConnell’s ruling, “The Trump Administration should treat this for what it is—an unconstitutional usurpation—and consider defying it outright.” Media Matters, [2/13/25]

- Fox News host Mark Levin cited controversial federal court rulings from the past — includingPlessy v. Fergusonand the Dred Scott decision — to argue for the administration to defy court orders. Levin justified rejecting court decisions, saying, “Some of the worst human rights violations and crises occurred in this country as a result of our courts.” Fox News, *Life, Liberty, & Levin*, [2/15/25]

- Article III Project President Mike Davis argued onThe Charlie Kirk Showthat if “activist judges” keep pushing back on Trump’s actions then “the president is just going to ignore these lawless and dangerous orders.”He continued, “When they overstep, the commander-in-chief has a constitutional duty to ignore clearly lawless orders.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [4/15/25]

- OnThe Benny Show, Davis said he hoped “President Trump said ‘F you’ to Judge Boasberg” and said Boasberg was trying to order “the most dangerous thing imaginable.” YouTube, *The Benny Show*, [3/17/25; NPR, 3/25/25]

## Some right-wing media figures have criticized the judiciary’s oversight and called for judges to be impeached

- Fox News legal editor Kerri Kupec Urbahn argued that “the conversation really should start shifting to the constitutionality of the judiciary.” She added that the judiciary is “blocking a co-equal branch’s function.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [2/11/25]

- Newsmax host Rob Schmitt called for federal judges to be impeached: “You can’t have people like this on the bench.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [2/12/25]

- Right-wing commentator Steve Bannon called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to impeach a federal judge, saying, “You put one through the process, they’re all going to be sheep.” He advised Johnson, “Just don't back off. All gas, no brake.” Real America’s Voice,*War Room*, [3/24/25]

- Then-Fox News host and current U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro called Boasberg “stupid” and questioned his authority to rule on deportation flights because he is “a local judge.”Pirro stated, “A local judge — make no mistake, this is a local judge, folks, who is a trial judge, he’s not even an appellate judge — thinks he can stop international diplomacy for national security issues that involve the American people because he’s a local federal judge. He’s stupid.” Fox News, *The Five*, [3/17/25]

- Urbahn said Boasberg has no oversight “over matters pertaining to immigration” because he’s not president.Urbahn stated, “Really, what’s his oversight at all? Because last time I checked, this judge was not elected president of the United States and therefore doesn’t have authority over matters pertaining to immigration, national security, and foreign policy.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/18/25]

- The Gateway Pundit posted instructions on how to advocate for impeachment of “crazed leftists” like Boasberg. It described the judge as “a very, very dangerous and lawless lunatic” and “America-hating.” Media Matters, [3/18/25]

## Right-wing media figures have also suggested that due process shouldn’t apply to noncitizens, with some calling for a suspension of habeas corpus

- Newsmax host Rob Schmitt claimed undocumented immigrants and Democrats “have exploited the good nature of this country” and that “due process … allows illegals to break into the country, rape and kill an American, and then be given a free attorney to defend themselves.”Schmitt continued, “Those are vulnerabilities that are now being exploited every day in this country.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [3/17/25]

- On the right-wing social media platform GETTR, Steve Bannon posted: “Alien Criminal Invaders DON’T Get ‘Due Process’—They Get the Boot.” GETTR, [3/17/25]

- OnFox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade questioned whether migrants have the right to due process, saying, “Really? They deserve due process? We have to give all these guys due process?” Later, co-host Lawrence Jones mocked questions about the process, saying, “So we’re going to do vetting when we deport, but we’re not going to do any vetting when they come across the border?” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/21/25, 3/21/25]

- Kilmeade also claimed, “It’s not practical to think that we can do due process on 8 million people.”Shortly after, he continued: “We cannot give every illegal immigrant due process, because we’ve got 22 million minimum, 8 million that came over the last four years.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/24/25, 3/24/25]

- Jones said we should “revisit” due process for alleged undocumented migrants. Jones: “The president is saying under the act that you don’t have to show, you don’t have to do this due process. So you have a constitutional right that is actually — they are afforded to illegals in this country. We should revisit that. But then you have a competing act that is saying, hey, if someone is a part of a foreign terrorist organization that you don’t have to give them due process and they can be deported.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [3/24/25]

- Right-wing podcaster and Trump ally Laura Loomer asked, “Who on earth thought that illegal aliens should be entitled to legal representation and rights? These people are not entitled to due process in our country.”Loomer continued, “I don’t even give a shit about all these illegal alien kids.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [4/30/25]

- YouTuber Zack Hoyt said, “I don’t really think that illegals deserve due process, by the way. I don’t think the Constitution applies to illegals.” Hoyt, who goes by Asmongold, acknowledged that the government could “get it wrong” when detaining immigrants but said: “There’s people in jail for murder that didn’t commit murder. … Does that mean we shouldn’t put people in jail for murder? … It just doesn’t make any sense.” Asmongold, Asmongold TV, [6/9/25]

- Fox host Sean Hannity asked, “Why do people have this belief system that you enter the country illegally and then you, quote, ‘automatically have constitutional rights’? You do not, in my view.”Hannity also said, “Why do so many federal judges believe that the safety and security of all of you comes second to the so-called due process rights of illegal immigrants that broke into this country illegally, broke the law, committed serious crimes?” Hannity has repeatedly referred to the “so-called rights of illegals.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [5/21/25, 7/14/25, 7/15/25, 7/22/25; Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/1/25, 7/24/25]

- :{:{Jeanine Pirro said, “The only due process I believe in is a legal way to enter this country.”}:Pirro said of Trump’s deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to a megaprison in El Salvador: “They are illegal. They are committing crimes, OK? We do not have to have them convicted of a crime to remove them.” Pirro later said the Fifth Amendment, which confers the right to due process, “says nothing about illegals” and “the Supreme Court never said in Abrego Garcia case that due process is required for illegals.” Fox News, *The Five*,[3/17/25,3/17/25,5/5/25]

- Newsmax host Greg Kelly said, “Habeas corpus is great, but I don’t think it applies to an illegal alien.”Newsmax, *Greg Kelly Reports*, [7/8/25]

- Bannon argued that Trump is “going to have to” suspend habeas corpus, “because these courts are going to continue to try to jam him up.” And later Bannon hailed himself and right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley as “the biggest advocates of just do what Lincoln did: Start suspending the writ of habeas corpus, put them on an aircraft, and get them the hell out of here.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [5/16/25, 5/30/25]

- Rogan O’Handley argued that “we should consider suspending the writ of habeas” so that “we can start to take more drastic actions to deport illegals, especially the cartels, without judicial overview, without the courts getting involved.”Handley, who goes by DC Draino, explained to Bannon, “I would say 10 to 20 million illegal aliens coming into this country counts as an invasion, especially when many of the illegal aliens are coming from hostile adversaries like China, like Ukraine, like … Venezuela, the Tren de Aragua. They’re being sent by these governments.” Real America’s Voice,*War Room*, [4/22/25]

- Fox host Emily Compagno criticized those who have called for due process for the deportees, saying, “I think it’s rich that all of a sudden we have some kind of, you know, voiced protection of due process and questioning of making sure all of the work is shown.”Compagno then questioned, “Where was that when, for example, President Trump was being prosecuted, ridiculously, right here in this very city? Where was that commitment to due process for those peaceful abortion activists and the elderly being put in jail?” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [3/19/25]

- Right-wing radio host Buck Sexton mocked those questioning whether alleged criminals should be sent to a Salvadoran prison and said, “Democrats are going to the mat to make sure they have maximum due process rights,” but “had no problem with nonviolent J6 Americans rotting away.”According to Sexton, “The same Democrats — and I mean the same individuals in some cases in the media and the Democrat party — who had no problem with nonviolent J6 Americans rotting away in a DC gulag for a year without trial are now really concerned about Tren de Aragua members.” Premiere Radio Networks, *The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show*, [3/21/25]

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an 2 26

According to New Republic sources, President Donald Trump's allies in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) were determined to move ahead with a federal prosecution of six Democrats even though they couldn't specify exactly what laws were violated. And the allegations from reporter Greg Sargent's sources are so damning, a legal blogger argues, that DOJ attorneys who pursued the case should be disbarred.

In a late 2025 video, six Democrats — who included Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan) — told members of the U.S. Armed Forces that they should disobey any orders from Trump if they are blatantly illegal. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were furious, with Trump attacking the Democrats as "traitors" and saying they deserved to be "arrested and put on trial."

But a federal grand jury, on February 10, decided against an indictment. And Sargent reported that according to attorney Preet Bharara — who was representing Slotkin — Trump's DOJ allies, including prosecutor Jeanine Pirro, were unable to tell him what specific statutes were violated. Regardless, the prosecutors were determined to move ahead with an indictment.

Responding to Sargent's reporting in a February 18 post on X, legal blogger Scary Lawyer Guy argued that such "misconduct' should result in the federal prosecutors losing their right to practice law.

Scary Lawyer Guy tweeted, "Textbook prosecutorial misconduct that should result in disbarment. Walking into a GJ and attempting to obtain an indictment against sitting members of Congress WITH NO IDENTIFIED CRIMINAL STATUTE BEING VIOLATED should also be a 'gate' level scandal but no one in the press cares."

Scary Lawyer Guy isn't the only one who is criticizing the Trump DOJ's conduct.

Kristy Parker, counsel for the group Protect Democracy and a former DOJ prosecutor told Sargent, "That is irregular. Typically, when someone is the target of a criminal investigation, it's unusual to dissemble with the target's lawyer about what the charges might be that close to an indictment. It's not how federal prosecutors are supposed to conduct themselves."

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These Fox News figures claimed to be deeply concerned with presidential corruption. Now they work for Trump.

Written by Matt Gertz

Research contributions from Pete Tsipis, Isabella Corrao, Jane Lee & Helena Hind

Published 02/11/26

“We have a president of the United States who was potentially involved in all of those entanglements with foreign entities,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “which could lead to complications or compromise as the president now.”

Hegeth’s comment serves as a searing indictment of his current boss, President Donald Trump, whose “entanglements with foreign entities" deepen with each new investigative report on his family’s sprawling business interests and attempts to cash in on the presidency.

But of course, Hegseth wasn’t talking about the recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealing an apparent quid pro quo in which a Trump family company received a half-billion dollar investment from an Emirati prince days before the president took office, then the Trump administration funneled AI chips to the prince’s firm. The quote is actually from July 2023, and it shows Hegseth using his prior role as Fox News host to denounce then-President Joe Biden.

It is not an overstatement to say that arguing against foreign money influence on the White House was a defining principle for right-wing media during the Biden years. But their arguments were based in fantasy, and the Trump family’s corruption is both much more straightforward and involves sums of money that are larger by orders of magnitude.

Thanks to Trump’s propensity to hire the people he saw on his television, many of those who loudly complained about the purported corruption of the Biden family — and even called for the criminal prosecution of President Biden — are now working within the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Fox smear machine that once went into overdrive promoting conspiracy theories about presidential corruption has gone quiet.

The Trump family’s corruption is orders of magnitude worse than the Biden allegations

Fox’s effort to turn Hunter Biden’s foreign business interests into a political liability for his father dates to Trump’s first administration, but became an obsession once Joe Biden took office in 2021. While the network’s narratives were never credible — and some even appeared to be the result of a Russian disinformation campaign — the pressure of its all-consuming coverage and its media power within the GOP eventually goaded congressional Republicans into an ill-fated impeachment effort, at which point the whole edifice collapsed.

But the Fox conspiracy-mongering takes on a new light given that some of the people who pushed it now work for a president who embarked on self-enrichment schemes of staggering scale and eye-popping corruption in his first year back in office.

While feverish claims of a “Biden Crime Family” involved a total of less than $7.5 million paid to Biden family members over the years — and nothing to Joe Biden — Trump had already “used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion,” the editorial board of The New York Times reported on the anniversary of his second inauguration.

Trump and his adult children oversee a sprawling business empire that has grown dramatically since he launched his reelection campaign and includes international real estate deals through the Trump Organization; his social media company and its parent, “which trades like a meme stock”; immense holdings in cryptocurrency; and an array of consulting and venture capital positions held by his sons that have the aroma of influence peddling. These businesses benefit from Trump’s presidency even as they frequently conflict with U.S. policy (by contrast, the right’s core allegation of Joe Biden aiding his son’s foreign business interests involved him carrying out U.S. policy as vice president).

Reporters and researchers who examine the various Trump tentacles are constantly uncovering new scandals and conflicts of interest. But perhaps the most nakedly corrupt involve the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial, which was founded shortly before his 2024 election and has since driven a huge increase in his personal wealth. The Wall Street Journal reported last month:

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi prince known as the “spy sheikh” for his leadership of the United Arab Emirates’ intelligence service, secretly agreed to purchase 49% of WLF just days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration for $500 million, in a “hugely profitable” deal for its founders.

In May, WLF’s CEO “announced that the sheikh’s investment firm, MGX, would use World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, to complete its $2 billion investment in [the crypto exchange] Binance,” a move that “rocketed USD1 up the rankings of largest stablecoins, enhancing its financial credibility.”

Weeks later, the Trump administration approved sales of “around 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips a year” to the UAE, one-fifth of which would go to Tahnoon’s company. Such sales had been sought by Tahnoon but blocked by the Biden administration out of concern that China might acquire the chips, with Tahnoon’s company “of particular concern” due to its “close ties to the sanctioned tech giant Huawei and other Chinese firms.”

Trump also pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the convicted founder of Binance, following “months of efforts by Zhao to boost” WLF. (Trump has denied even knowing who Zhao is.)

Tying it all together, Zhao is an Emirati citizen who is “close” to Tahnoon, Binance is based in the UAE and counts Tahnoon as a major investor, and “people close to the royal family urged the Trump administration to pardon Zhao.”

Fox contributor Andrew McCarthy, while accusing the Bidens of “corruptly profiteering off Joe Biden’s political power and influence,” nonetheless noted that the Trumps’ actions were worse by orders of magnitude.

“You know what the difference is between the Biden family business and the Trump family business?” he asked in a Saturday piece for National Review. “You’d have to add two digits to the sum of Biden abuses of power, foreign entanglements, and corruption alleged in the report to get near what Trump has raked in just from the UAE.”

Fox News’ rants about the “Biden crime family” perfectly describe Trumpian corruption

Hegseth is just one of several top Trump administration officials who participated in Fox’s yearslong campaign to turn conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings into a political corruption scandal for his father.

“The real story here though is all of the nasty work that he [Hunter Biden] has done across the world, how much money he has made, and the fact that he was able to make, what, $80,000 a month from Burisma in Ukraine because his dad was the vice president — it calls into question Joe Biden's motives,” Treasury Secretary Sean Duffy said back in 2022, when he was a Fox Business host. “Is Joe Biden looking out for the American people or is Joe Biden looking out for Hunter Biden's interests?”

As a Fox host, Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro railed against “the corruption that was going on in the Biden crime family” and Joe Biden’s purported efforts to “enrich his family.” And when she was asked about whether there was any “comparison” between what the Bidens did and Donald Trump’s businesses receiving millions of dollars from China while he was serving as president, Pirro stressed that there was not.

“Donald Trump wasn't involved in the business once he became president,” she explained. “The bottom line is he had properties. He was entitled to have someone else monitor those properties and make money from those properties.”

For then-Fox contributor Leo Terrell, now a top Justice Department official, Joe Biden was “the meal ticket for the family” who “makes the money for the Biden family,” and the lack of DOJ attention to Hunter Biden’s purported crimes indicated “favorable treatment because his father is in the White House.”

And when Pam Bondi was merely a lawyer and lobbyist who frequently appeared on Fox instead of an attorney general who frequently appeared on Fox, she argued that the foreign business dealings of the president’s son were “a matter of national security” that was “so important” that it required the appointment of a special prosecutor to ensure the Justice Department acted properly in the case.

They called for Biden’s prosecution; now they run the DOJ under Trump

Several Fox pundits who joined the Trump administration — including some who now serve in senior Justice Department posts — even argued at the time that Joe Biden’s actions warranted a criminal probe.

Fox host Sean Hannity asked Bondi — then a frequent Fox guest and now Trump’s attorney general — during an August 2023 segment whether anything would “ultimately happen to Joe and Hunter Biden.” Bondi replied that “when we have a new administration, absolutely Sean, it has to,” adding that a criminal investigation “must be opened” and that the Bidens would be “prosecuted” under a future Trump presidency.

Bondi also stressed in 2022 that if Trump had been president under the same circumstances, he would have “right away, recused himself” and had “a special prosecutor take over.”

Duffy argued that the FBI and Justice Department should be investigating the “shady” dealings to determine whether Joe Biden is “corrupt” and has “made money off of this.” But he claimed that “they won't do a forensic audit because they know that the money goes from foreign countries to Hunter Biden into Joe Biden's pocket.”

“There was a major scandal with this administration and it starts of course with Joe Biden and his involvement with Hunter,” Pirro said in 2023. Citing what she claimed was a ream of evidence that “just goes on and on,” she concluded, “You don't need any more than what we have now to convict them.”

And Terrell claimed in 2023 that an aspect of the pseudoscandal was “sinister and criminal,” adding that the “totality of all the evidence” showed that “the walls have fallen on Joe Biden.” He added that prosecutors were ignoring Hunter Biden’s crimes because if “you prosecute Hunter Biden, you prosecute Joe Biden,” and “everyone knows that the Department of Justice, the FBI is in bed with the Democratic Party and they have weaponized the departments.”

When media ignoring presidential corruption was a sign of “propaganda”

In his piece for National Review, McCarthy wrote, “Now that self-dealing has achieved heights so astronomical that $27 million would barely be a rounding error, Republicans have lost interest.” The same is true of his colleagues at Fox, who barely discussed Trump pardoning Zhao and still have yet to provide substantive coverage of the UAE’s “spy sheikh” purchasing a huge stake in the president’s company.

Why might that be? Hannity asked Pirro a similar question about coverage of the Bidens back in 2023. After she claimed that the Bidens were running an “organized criminal enterprise” in which “Joe Biden is the front man, Hunter Biden is the bag man,” he asked her why “the media” wouldn’t follow up on the story.

“Because they are Democrats,” she replied at the time. “We are now living in a country that is changed. These are crimes not just by the Bidens, these are crimes against America. This is what is going on in this country — and the truth is that they don't care anymore.”

Pirro is now the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

Some of her colleagues in the Trump administration offered similar critiques of coverage of the Biden family back when they worked at Fox.

“When will the media ramp up their scrutiny of Joe, of Hunter, of these payments, of these associations, of the whistleblowers, of the 1023s, of the WhatsApp messages, of the bank exchanges?” Hegseth asked in 2023. “We only know of this because of the House Republicans for a year and a half. What if the media actually examined it, too?”

The Bidens, Hegseth told Hannity, “are counting on a complicit press, which we’ve almost seen universal besides your show and this channel and a few others willing to dig into all the smoke that’s there.”

That purported lack of coverage, Duffy claimed, ensures that “people don’t look to mainstream media as a news source — they’re a propaganda source.”

MMA //

### Fox won’t tell viewers that the UAE bought off Trump

02/03/26 11:00 AM EST

### Another massive Trump corruption scandal for right-wing media to bury

09/16/25 12:15 PM EDT

### There’s finally evidence for right-wing claims of China corrupting a president

01/04/24

---

===

FAIL IN CT

AN 2 26

The New York Times reports a Washington D.C. grand jury has again refused to acquiesce to President Donald Trump’s quest to prosecute his political foes, with the paper calling the rejection “a remarkable rebuke” from ordinary citizens.

The Times reports: “Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video last fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said.”

The *Times* additionally reports it was already remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Trump ally Jeanine Pirro — even authorized prosecutors to approach a grand jury with an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies.

It is rare for grand jurors to snub prosecutors’ indictment requests, considering prosecutors get to dominate the jury with one-sided arguments leading up to their decision. However, the Times reports it has happened with increased frequency with Trump’s Justice Department “as his appointees push ahead with questionable cases.”

It is doubly surprising considering the president of the United States accused Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and the other legislators of seditious conspiracy and said they could potentially be put to death. The U.S. Department of Defense later announced that it was launching an investigation into Kelly for participating in the video warning active-duty troops to not follow illegal orders from Trump and also threatened to court martial the NASA astronaut.

But the jury apparently disagreed on all counts and refused to indict any of the legislators incriminated by Trump.

Trump’s targets also Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and four colleagues in the House: Jason Crow (D-Colo.) Maggie Goodlander, (D-N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa).

Kelly is already suing the Pentagon over its attempts to punish him.

---

AN 2 26

Fox News host-turned U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's attempt to criminally charge six members of Congress fell flat this week. That may be due to the personnel she put in charge of making the case to the grand jury.

Bloomberg Law reported Wednesday that one of the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors Pirro tasked with convincing a grand jury to indict members of Congress — who recorded a video message encouraging active-duty military service members to honor their oath to disobey illegal orders — is a dance photographer with no prior DOJ experience.

According to Bloomberg, Steve Vandervelden currently maintains a photography studio, and his Instagram profile shows posts as recent as Wednesday morning. He previously worked for Pirro several decades ago when she was the district attorney in Westchester County, New York. The other prosecutor on the case, Carlton Davis, last worked for the DOJ in 2018 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

"I spent a good portion of my life peering into the darkness looking for the bad guy,” Vandervelven told the Rockland/Westchester Journal News in 2023, when explaining why he gave up his law career for photography. “Now it’s a joy to peer into the darkness and look for the light and find beauty as opposed to the grime.”

The outlet reported that it is "unprecedented" for the DOJ to assign a high-level investigation to an outside attorney. Typically, the Justice Department relies on longtime career prosecutors with multiple years of experience working on complex cases to ensure a suspect is indicted by a grand jury.

According to Bloomberg's unnamed sources within the DOJ, career prosecutors were alarmed that Pirro prevented the Justice Department's Public Integrity (PIN) section — which typically handles investigations of sitting elected officials – from the case involving the six Democratic lawmakers. However, PIN was effectively hollowed out last year with a wave of firings and resignations, and Bloomberg reported that PIN's remaining staff may have not had any input on the case.

The six Democrats in the video are all veterans of either the U.S. military or intelligence agencies. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) joined Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Chris DeLuzio (D-Pa.) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) to remind troops of the Uniform Code of Military Justice's instructions to obey all orders from superior officers, except for orders that are illegal.

2 10 26

TRIES TO GET RID OF BANNON CONTEMPT CONVICTION

---

RWW

02/03/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Isaac Schorr @ Mediaite: Mike Johnson Jumps Aboard Trump’s Rigged Elections Bandwagon: ‘Can I Prove That? No’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested that three 2024 congressional elections may have been rigged against the GOP while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

David Moye @ HuffPost: Turning Point USA's Alternative Super Bowl Lineup Is Even Lamer Than You Thought

Turning Point USA, the right-wing political group founded by Charlie Kirk, announced the lineup on Monday for what it’s billed as an alternative Super Bowl halftime show, and people on social media aren’t exactly singing its praises.

The Throckmorton Initiative: TPUSA's Super Bowl Halftime Show with a Side Dish of Christian Nationalism

The late Charlie Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA is planning and promoting what it calls a “conservative friendly” alternative to the NFL sponsored Super Bowl halftime show. The NFL show features Puerto Rican raggaeton artist Bad Bunny. Headling the TPUSA show is Kid Rock. If you know anything about these artists, you know that both use profanity and explicit lyrics. The key difference for people supporting the alternative show is that Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and performs his lyrics in Spanish. This has MAGA folk in a tizzy. They want their Super Bowl white and English.

Sophie Lawton @ Media Matters: Steve Bannon's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend

As his extensive and friendly communications with Epstein were revealed, Steve Bannon's candidate lost a “vitally important” election.

Alex Galbraith @ Salon: “Can’t understand how they think”: Bundy breaks with MAGA over ICE operations

The rancher famous for armed standoffs with the government said the left is "more correct" on immigration.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Trump claims he wasn’t ‘friendly’ with Epstein, despite all of the available evidence

The president’s willingness to push a line that was obviously untrue was an odd and unnecessary misstep.

Vic Verbalaitis @ The Daily Beast: Judge Jeanine Scrambles to Backtrack After MAGA Turns on Her

Judge Jeanine is doing damage control, but it’s not going well.

---

an 2 26

Jeanine Pirro backs down from gun threat after 2nd Amendment backlash

Adam Lynch

---

MMA

### Fox's Larry Kudlow urges Jeanine Pirro to drop the investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell

01/15/26

---

1 15 26 PIRRO LTR INTERVIEW SLOTKIN // MARK KELLY

---

MMA

Jeanine Pirro isn’t going rogue. She’s the tip of the spear.

The former Fox host shows the authoritarian instincts Trump wants from federal prosecutors

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 01/15/26

White House officials are reportedly experiencing “significant frustration” and “heaping blame” on U.S. attorney and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro over the firestorm surrounding her office’s criminal probe of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which drew severe backlash this week from Republican members of Congress and a broad spectrum of right-wing media. But it would be a mistake to treat Pirro’s nakedly pretextual bid to punish Powell and curtail the Fed’s independence as the actions of a rogue actor — she is a committed Trumpist operative carrying out President Donald Trump’s instructions to use state power to punish his enemies.

Trump has made clear that he wants federal prosecutors and investigators (and indeed, all administration officials) to forcefully wield their authority against people and entities who defy him. Pirro’s actions against Powell — whether she acted on orders from above or her own initiative — are fully in keeping with that assignment. Indeed, she has the job in the first place in no small part because she was in the vanguard of Trumpist media figures calling for criminal charges against Trump’s foes during her Fox tenure.

Trump reportedly “criticized a group of U.S. attorneys at a White House event last week, calling them weak and complaining they weren’t moving fast enough to prosecute his favored targets.” Pirro, who was present at the event, is surely doing whatever she can to remain on his good list.

Pirro’s Powell probe followed years of Trump invective targeting the Fed chair and came amid his threats of legal action, and the president has repeatedly defended the probe this week. Pirro’s office is also reportedly investigating Democratic legislators who released a video urging service members and intelligence officers not to follow illegal orders, which Trump characterized as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

And she does not shrink from critics who say she is overseeing politicized investigations. On Tuesday night, Pirro went on Fox host and chief Trump propagandist Sean Hannity’s show (one of the president’s favorite watches) to not only defend her pursuit of Powell but to blast Republican legislators who have taken issue with it.

Video

Citation

From the January 13, 2026, edition of Fox News' Hannity

These actions are exactly what the president wants to see from his underlings.

Trump ran on “retribution” and assembled a team eager to protect his interests and target his political foes, including loyalists like Pirro, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, and FBI Director Kash Patel. Less than a year into his tenure, the Justice Department has pursued cases at the president’s behest against a litany of Trump foils, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Trump wants these cases brought, so more are coming. There’s a Trumpist U.S. attorney in Miami reportedly pursuing an absurd but sprawling investigation into the right-wing fantasy that former President Barack Obama led a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump; a newly-announced assistant attorney general post slated to purportedly target fraud under the president’s direct oversight, which could be a vehicle to go after Democratic governors like Minnesota’s Tim Walz and California’s Gavin Newsom; and a broad, all-of-government effort to criminalize progressive groups and their funders by smearing them as domestic terrorists.

But Trump needs prosecutors willing to do his dirty work; several have preferred to resign or be fired rather than pursue such weak and pretextual efforts. He surely knows from watching her on television over the years that in Pirro, he has a loyalist who won’t say no.

Pirro, a former judge and prosecutor who joined Fox after a failed 2006 U.S. Senate bid, emerged during the 2016 campaign as one of the most abjectly sycophantic Trump fanatics on TV — which made the president a regular viewer of her Saturday evening show. She spent much of his first presidency as a key cog in the right-wing media machine that encouraged the president to target his political foes through authoritarian tactics.

Pirro made headlines by demanding a “cleansing” of the FBI and DOJ, with the purportedly disloyal to be “taken out in handcuffs,” and spuriously accused Democrats like Hillary Clinton of various crimes. She lobbied for the ouster of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling for his dismissal on Fox and lashing out at his tenure to Trump in the White House, over Sessions’ unwillingness to turn Foxy fantasies into criminal indictments. Her support of Trumpian voter fraud conspiracy theories following the 2020 election led to her brief removal from Fox’s airwaves — and to her executive producer describing her as a “reckless maniac.”

The Fox host did show some concern about the prospect of prosecutorial overreach — when she perceived it as harming Trump’s interests. Pirro described Trump’s conviction by a New York jury as the result of “warfare” (because “lawfare is far too soft” a term) and suggested it could spark “a revolution” because it “was not a case that should've been brought.” She also suggested that the FBI agents searching Mar-A-Lago may have “wanted” to “engage in deadly physical force,” and said that the lack of media coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop meant that “we are living in a fascist state.”

Pirro’s “blind obedience to President Trump,” as Schiff put it, was readily observable when her nomination came up for a Senate vote in August — but Republicans voted in lockstep for her confirmation. Now Republican senators like Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are saying that the Powell probe goes too far — but as with Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) criticism of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s antivax moves, they’ve already yielded their strongest card by supporting the nomination in the first place.

The probes of Powell and Democratic legislators won’t be Pirro’s last investigations into the president’s foes. She seems more likely to end up a special counsel focused solely on such cases than drummed out of government for excessive partisanship. Her Fox catalog may hint at future targets, from Democratic governors who won’t comply with ICE to FBI and DOJ officials purportedly engaged in “election interference” against the president to the undocumented immigrants she says should be “presum[ed]” as violent criminals.

None of this is to say that Pirro’s authoritarian pursuit of the president’s critics will succeed — her relevant legal experience is decades old, and cases brought by her office have sputtered before D.C. juries at an historic rate. But she has the job because Trump knows that unlike more honorable federal prosecutors, she will keep trying.

### The insane, toxic Trump adulation of Jeanine Pirro

03/08/18 9:29 AM EST

### The right-wing media backlash against the Jerome Powell probe

01/13/26 1:30 PM EST

### Jeanine Pirro’s Fox producer thought she was “nuts.” Trump just named her DC’s top prosecutor.

05/08/25

---

an 1 26

Conservative National Review rips Trump for making DOJ a 'tool for partisan vengeance'

am 1 26

Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News host turned Trump U.S. Attorney, appears to be quickly backtracking in her office’s investigation of Jerome Powell. The esteemed Federal Reserve Chairman announced on Sunday that he is being investigated by the Trump Department of Justice, sending markets — and prominent Republicans — spinning.

Pirro, in a Monday night social media post, insisted that Powell has not been indicted, saying: “The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s.”

According to The Daily Beast, Pirro issued her “ultra-defensive statement” after “major backlash” against her investigation into the 72-year-old Republican investment banker and lawyer who has steered the Federal Reserve since 2018, when President Donald Trump appointed him chairman.

The Daily Beast reported that Pirro’s investigation is “an inquiry that even Republican lawmakers have blasted as a revenge plot against one of the president’s adversaries that threatens the independence of America’s central bank.”

Suggesting that Pirro may have gone “rogue,” the Beast added that reports suggest “Pirro failed to obtain the necessary sign-off from her superiors at the Department of Justice before subpoenaing the Federal Reserve as part of her probe, according to Bloomberg.”

It appears that others were also left out of the loop in the unprecedented, high-profile investigation.

“Sources also told NBC News that Pirro’s office did not contact the White House or the Treasury Department before issuing the subpoenas, and that Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte—who spearheaded the push to investigate the Federal Reserve—was also allegedly left in the dark.”

“Investors are doubtful of her success,” Bloomberg News added. “While U.S. assets initially sold off on news of the investigation in early trading Monday, stocks and bonds bounced back by the end of the day. That suggests traders think Republicans will find ways to dial back the probe given the critical importance investors assign to a Federal Reserve that’s free from political influence.”

On Sunday, Chairman Powell revealed that he is under a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, an investigation stemming from his congressional testimony on the renovation of Federal Reserve buildings. The Fed is fully self-funded, and that renovation is not funded by American taxpayers.

---

AV 12 25

One former federal prosecutor is calling on former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro – who President Donald Trump appointed to be the Department of Justice's (DOJ) top prosecutor in Washington D.C. — to recuse herself from a high-profile case involving a January 6 defendant.

, former DOJ white-collar prosecutor Ankush Khardori asserted that Pirro was incapable of handling the case involving Brian J. Cole, who is accused of leaving pipe bombs outside of the Democratic and Republican Party's national offices the night before the deadly riot. CNN host Brianna Keilar pointed out that while Cole expressed disillusionment with both major political parties, he sympathized with Trump's debunked conspiracy theory that he only lose the 2020 election because it was supposedly conducted fraudulently.

"Cole said 'something just snapped' after watching everything get worse and that he wanted to do something to the parties because 'they were in charge.' That's according to the memo here," Keilar said. "Prosecutors say when Cole was asked why he placed the explosives at the RNC and DNC, he responded, 'I really don't like either party at this point.' How do you see prosecutors planning to use that as a motive in court?"

Khardori acknowledged that Cole's alleged motive "would be helpful in explaining to the jury why he [allegedly] did what he did." However, he added that "the prosecutors account of his motive are almost certainly the most Trump-friendly version of what happened" due to Pirro being the U.S. Attorney in D.C.

"The U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, which is prosecuting this case, is Jeanine Pirro: A rabid and frequently unhinged Republican partisan and Trump loyalist who herself participated in the effort to mislead the public about Trump losing the 2020 election," Khardori said. "She was part of the problem here. Honestly. She should be recused because she can't possibly oversee a case that concerns this and be dispassionate because she was part of the problem."

"She hosted [2020 election denier] Sidney Powell on her show in November 2020, and that was one of the reasons that Fox had to pay out nearly $800 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion [Voting Systems]," he added. "So I would just urge everyone to be very careful about taking the government's representations on this point at face value, because they do almost everything they can to protect Trump these days."

Watch the segment below:

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AN 12 25

National security analyst Marcy Wheeler noticed a strange edit in the court filing about the Jan. 6 bomber, Brian Cole, who confessed to planting pipe bombs at the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters.

Writing Monday, Wheeler said that it might be a minor point, but the detention memo quotes Cole saying one thing, while changing the meaning of the confession later.

This month, Cole told the DOJ, "I really don't like either party at this point."

But a few paragraphs later, the DOJ changes the tense of the opinion he had in 2020.

"In his own words, the defendant did so because he did not'like either party,' but 'they were in charge' and thus were, in the defendant’s mind, an appropriate target for extreme acts of violence," the document says.

Wheeler noted the past tense is "consistent with him having been a Trump supporter and souring on him." It was only later thatthe DOJ turned it into a "both-sides thing."

"By his own admission, the defendant committed these chilling acts because he was unhappy with the response of political leaders on both sides of the political aisle to questions raised about the results of the 2020 election, and 'something just snapped.' [my emphasis throughout]."

The documents make it clear that Cole was a 2020 election denier.

Wheeler commented, "It may well be that something about what Cole said makes it fair to put his animosity to both parties back in time to 2020, but that’s not the tense he used."

Her most "stunning" observation, she said, is that the detention affidavit throws out what seems like an important detail from the arrest affidavit. Cole was on Capitol Hill on Dec. 14, 2020. Starting on Dec. 15, 2020, he started resetting his phone to "factory settings."

"The alleged pipe bomber started exercising operational security the day after that trip to Capitol Hill, the scene of his alleged crime," Wheeler said, quoting the details from the affidavit.

It details "a Samsung cellular device" taken from Cole when he was arrested. "... between December 2020 and December 2025, the device recorded 943 events identified as a 'factory reset' or 'wipe,' including a 'wipe' event approximately three hours before the defendant’s arrest on December 4, 2025."

The first reset happened on Dec. 15, 2020, the day after his trip to Capitol Hill. The second was a month later, on July 15, 2022. At that point, Cole began resetting his phone weekly.

The trip to Washington D.C. on Dec. 14 piqued Wheeler's interest, but she noticed that suddenly, there's no mention of the the visit.

"Jeanine Pirro doesn’t want to talk about the trip he made there at all," speculated Wheeler.

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10 25 AN

GRAND JURY 3X NO BILL, MISDEMENOR TOSSED AFTER 2 HR DELIB

'Throw the book at people': Judges and lawyers say Jeanine Pirro has 'no credibility left'

---

an aug 2025

In an article for Salon publishedSunday, writer Sophia Tesfaye argued that the appointment of Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., the "face of President Donald Trump’s new law‑and‑order regime," is backfiring.

The article noted that so far, her time in office has been marked by grandstanding and symbolic arrests — tactics that courts have repeatedly dismantled.

Tesfaye asserted that the federal takeover of D.C.’s law enforcement apparatus "is little more than theater with essentially no legal foundation." She added that Pirro, plucked from Fox News for her loyalty and ratings, has prioritized aggressive messaging over prosecutorial substance.

The article further highlighted that Pirro’s team “whiffed on three cases alleging defendants assaulted federal agents," and the New York Times has pointed to her office’s struggle to match her bombastic rhetoric given the exodus of career-level prosecutors and staff.

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Tefaye also noted that Pirro resorted to enlisting military lawyers to backfill massive staffing shortages, with 90 prosecutors and 60 support staff reportedly missing. This has overwhelmed the D.C. federal courts, used to six new cases per week, now inundated with six or more per day, pushing trial dates into 2027 and forcing judges to hasten hearings under pressure.

Tesfaye also spotlighted the infamous “Subway sandwich slinger” case: Sean Charles Dunn, who threw a sandwich at an agent during a protest, became the target of a felony assault charge. Pirro’s office clearly aimed for dramatic impact—but the grand jury refused to indict not once, but four times in a single month, reducing the case to a misdemeanor.

"The sandwich case was meant to be a show of strength; instead, it is serving as a symbol of the administration’s superficial posturing," Tesfaye wrote.

She added: "With Trump’s installation of shock troops like Pirro to carry out his ideological retribution under the banner of justice, judges and juries are now functioning as the final guardrails in the near-total absence of resistance from the Republican-led legislative branch. Thankfully, over 200 court orders have blocked Trump’s policies, including at least 120 rulings within the first 100 days alone."

an 8 25

Before Trump appointed Fox News entertainer Jeanine Pirro U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, NPR reports she already had a reputation with her old bosses at Fox.

"Insane," is how one Fox corporate board member described one of her public statements, according to NPR.

"Reckless maniac," is how a Fox News executive put it.

“I don't trust her to be responsible," another executive admitted.

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Still another company head was horrified at Pirro’s “tendency to find random conspiracy theories on weird internet sites."

NPR reports these opinions were lifted from legal documents made public last month in a defamation lawsuit brought by Smartmatic, a voting technology company, against Fox News. Pirro is named as a defendant. The critiques circulated when Pirro was at the top of her purported game at Fox as an explosive entertainer fond of big, blaring statements and claims, similar to the breathless threats and “federal assault” prosecution Pirro lobbed at a man who hurled a hoagie at a U.S. border agent in Washington, D.C.

“He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today because we charged him with a felony assault on a police officer, and we’re going to back the police to the hilt. So, there — stick your subway sandwich somewhere else,” Pirro shouted into her office camera.

A federal grand jury did not agree, handing Pirro her second defeat at indicting D.C. residents protesting President Donald Trump’s flood of federal agents on local streets.

“The U.S. attorney can try to concoct crimes to quiet the people, but in our criminal justice system, the citizens have the last word,” said defense attorneys for Sidney Lori Reid, who Pirro tried to prosecute allegedly placing herself between ICE agents and someone they were detaining. “We are anxious to present the misdemeanor case to a jury and to quickly clear Ms. Reid’s name.”

NPR reports former Trump senior official Sarah Isgur saying the jury was still out on whether Pirro can be an effective prosecutor.

"At some point in the near future, she's going to be really tested — like all U.S. attorneys with these kinds of big posts are," said Isgur. "And we'll find out whether those comments were prescient or whether she really does understand the difference between the two hats."

Read the full NPR report at this link.

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an 8 25

CNN reported Wednesday that now led by former Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro, the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office has instructed prosecutors to bring the most serious charges available, even elevating minor offenses to more significant ones.

Defense attorneys across the city argue that this is turning relatively small infractions into major legal battles.

A individual at DC federal public defender's office, who was not identified, told CNN: “It has been a nightmare."

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At the same time, prosecutors are pushing to keep more defendants behind bars before trial, a sharp shift from the city’s traditional approach of releasing those accused of nonviolent or low-level crimes unless they pose a threat or are convicted.

This pivot has created immense pressure on DC’s criminal justice system, endangering the already fragile balance across its jails, federal courts, and the local Superior Court, which currently has 13 judicial vacancies waiting to be filled by the president, owing to the District’s unique federal status.

AJ Kramer, the federal public defender for DC, told CNN: “It’s a real mess right now."

In a recent detention hearing, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui made clear how badly the system is buckling, per the report.

He chastised the Department of Corrections for detaining a woman for nearly 24 hours “despite his order releasing her”, highlighting that the city’s facilities are not keeping pace with the volume of intake.

“The systems in place are not keeping up with the volume coming in,” he noted in another appearance, conveying how this crackdown is amplifying existing inefficiencies in the DC jail.

The report noted that this torrent of cases has also led to heightened scrutiny from both judges and juries.

One federal matter this month involving an altercation between an FBI agent, an immigration officer, and a detainee failed to win a grand jury indictment not once but three times, an extremely rare outcome.

Pirro candidly stated at a press conference: “The burden is on us to prove these cases,” then added, “Sometimes a jury will buy it and sometimes they won’t. So be it. That’s the way the process works.”

Another striking example involves a DC man, Sean Dunn, who faces a felony assault charge after allegedly throwing a sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer. Prosecutors hoped to secure an indictment to proceed on the felony, but the grand jury refused, though the office still has the option to try again in the coming days.

The aggressive federal posture endorsed by President Donald Trump and executed by Pirro’s team is flooding DC’s courts with elevated charges and pretrial detentions. But as the system strains under the weight, repeated grand jury setbacks mean that increased prosecution may be reaching the limits of what evidence and resources can sustain. This development has revealed deep vulnerabilities in the capital’s criminal justice framework.

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fail an 8 25

Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host President Donald Trump chose as a U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, drew a great deal of criticism when she stridently vowed to make sure Charles Sean Dunn — a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) paralegal — was aggressively prosecuted for throwing a Subway sandwich at a federal officer in Washington, D.C. "Assault a law enforcement officer, and you’ll be prosecuted," Pirro declared.

Pirro, critics argued, was being a hypocrite in light of the fact that Trump pardoned rioters who violently attacked police officers when they invaded the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

Pirro's critics also said that she didn't have a substantial case. And on Wednesday morning, August 27, the New York Times reported that DOJ prosecutors "were unable to secure a felony assault indictment against" Dunn.

According to NY Times reporters y Alan Feuer, Devlin Barrett and William K. Rashbaum, "The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the (Trump) Administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to the apartment of the man, Sean C. Dunn, to arrest him."

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The news about Dunn, dubbed "Sandwich Guy" in media reports, is drawing a lot of discussion on X, formerly Twitter.

The Atlantic's Shane Harris tweeted, "Turns out you can't indict a ham sandwich."

Content creator Prabhas Sankar commented, "The unusual case, which initially drew attention for its almost comical circumstances,

highlights the challenges prosecutors face when trying to prove intent and threat in incidents that may appear more trivial than dangerous. While assaulting a federal officer is generally treated as a serious offense, the grand jury's apparent reluctance to indict suggests that the evidence did not rise to the level of a prosecutable crime in their view. Legal analysts note that such cases often hinge on context — whether the act was seen as a genuine threat to safety or simply a rash, impulsive gesture without harmful intent."

X user Sarah Majdov posted, "It sounds like straight from the Onion."

Another X user, Jason Frakk, wrote, "A federal agent, tactical gear, a sandwich, and a SUBWAY. The only thing indicted here is the absurdity of it all. Guess some D.C. cases just don't have the filling to stick."

X user Errol Meade posted video of Pirro and remarked, "Dumbest possible people running America."

Meanwhile, on Bluesky, writer Ian Boudreau said of Pirro, "The prosecutor who failed to get a grand jury to indict the sandwich guy has to be experiencing rock bottom right now

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MMA

Eight damning new revelations about Fox’s 2020 election lies from the Smartmatic filings

Written by Matt Gertz

Published 08/21/25

Newly available filings in the election technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News provide fresh insights into the network’s egregious and irresponsible promotion of President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies — four and a half years after Fox’s propaganda helped trigger a violent insurrection in which enraged Trumpists sacked the U.S. Capitol.

The documents, which support Smartmatic’s motion for summary judgment and were originally filed in April, were first reported by The Washington Post after a judicial hearing officer removed many of the redactions.

The documents feature numerous previously unseen text messages and internal communications between Fox hosts, executives, producers, and other employees as Trump attempted to use false claims about the 2020 election to subvert the results of the election he lost and remain in power.

Fox’s internal machinations during this period were previously made public through the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, another election technology company which accused the network of defamation over its post-election coverage. Fox ultimately settled that suit as it went to trial in 2023 for a record $787.5 million.

The contours of Smartmatic’s story are broadly similar to — if no less damning than — the one Dominion told: Fox hosts and executives knew that Trump lost the 2020 election and that the claims of widespread election fraud he and his supporters pushed were false, but they nonetheless pivoted in the days following the election to promote such conspiracy theories -– including falsehoods about the company — because they were taking heat from viewers overcalling Arizona for Joe Biden and feared losing market share to more aggressive competitors like Newsmax

But the Smartmatic filings provide new evidence that helps flesh out the tale of Fox’s cowardice and corruption.

Maria Bartiromo leveraged her status at Fox to try to overturn the election: “I am news”

Maria Bartiromo was once a respected business reporter, but reinvented herself as a hardcore MAGA propagandist during the first Trump administration. But even as she went further and further down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, Bartiromo has retained her position on Fox’s “news” side, anchoring Fox Business’ three-hour weekday program Mornings with Maria as well as the weekend show Sunday Morning Futures,which is simulcast on Fox News.

Smartmatic’s filings show Bartiromo leveraged that position as she tried to get Sidney Powell, the MAGA attorney notorious for her far-fetched election claims, to come on her Fox Business show in mid-November 2020. (Bartiromo hosted Powell on her Fox News show earlier that month to push election lies after Powell sent her an email featuring fraud hypotheses from someone who also claimed that “the Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.”)

“Sidney we must keep you out there,” Bartiromo wrote in a November 17, 2020, Signal message.

She contrasted her own role at the network with that of then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, another avid promoter of election fraud lies, and suggested she could provide more helpful treatment, saying, “Dobbs is considered very opinionated. I am news. How about Friday?”

Bartiromo later suggested to Powell that her own goal was to reverse the election results and keep Trump in power. “I am very worried,” she wrote. “Please please please overturn this. Bring the evidence. I know you can.”

Bartiromo still has both of her “news” shows.

### Jeanine Pirro explicitly declared her loyalty to Trump and the GOP

The filings show then-Fox host Jeanine Pirro texted Ronna McDaniel, then the chair of the Republican National Committee, the following on September 21, 2020: “I work so hard for the party across the country… I’m the # 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and the party.”

It’s not precisely news that Pirro viewed her work at the network as an extension of Trump’s campaign — it would in fact have been difficult to come away with a different conclusion after watching her commentary over the years.

Nonetheless, it’s helpful to have that confirmed explicitly in writing.

### CEO Suzanne Scott ordered promotion of Fox prime-timers in “news” hours

In mid-November 2020, I reported that Fox appeared to be trying to stave off its competitors by heavily promoting its prime-time “opinion” stars during its purported “news” hours. This campaign included the “news” programs running ads hyping the hosts casting doubt on the election results, airing on-screen bugs promoting their shows, and playing lengthy clips from the “opinion” shows.

The Smartmatic filings reveal that Fox CEO Suzanne Scott apparently ordered this breach of the purported wall the network maintained existed between its “news” and opinion divisions. She emailed top Fox executives on November 9, 2020, demanding that the “news” hours increase its promotion of “opinion” talent like Pirro and the prime-time hosts. She wrote (emphasis added):

On the website – its 345p and I still dont see our opinion folks being promoted on .com – I’m seeing a ton of FOX nation – need that changed asap for the next few weeks. Same for FOX News channel – not seeing nearly enough promotion of primetime talent other than the little bug. And we should get a Pirro promo in as well. This is something I called around about first thing this morning. I’m traveling next four days and expect this to be handled well.

### Sean Hannity hosted Rudy Giuliani despite complaining he was “insane”: “I’m not redpill78”

Sean Hannity went from considering Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani an “insane” person he could not conceive of hosting to welcoming him back onto his program in 10 days.

The Fox host functioned as an extension of Trump’s White House and regularly hosted Giuliani to spin Ukraine conspiracy theories that Fox’s research team said were not credible. But the former New York City mayor turned Trump lawyer was apparently going too far for even Hannity in the early days of Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election results.

The filings show Hannity texted associates on November 10, 2020, to say of Giuliani: “He is going nuts. We canceled the guy. Read what’s wrong…. He’s insane.” He told producers the following day that Giuliani is “acting like an insane person. I’m not redpill78.” (According to the Smartmatic filing, “Hannity testified that his reference to ‘redpill78’” — a streaming program associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory — “indicated that he was skeptical” of Giuliani.)

On November 19, 2020, Hannity interviewed Giuliani about his election fraud claims.

Hannity subsequently testified that he had hosted Giuliani because he was a “top newsmaker.”

He retains his Fox prime-time show.

### Jeanine Pirro’s path back into the Murdoch network’s good graces

The Dominion filings show that a Fox executive took Pirro off the air the weekend after Election Day, preempting her November 7, 2020, broadcast because he did not “trust her to be responsible.” They also reveal that after Pirro’s show returned the following weekend, her executive producer struggled in vain to prevent her from promoting what he termed her election “conspiracy theories.”

Those filings, however, do not fully explain why Pirro returned to the air in the first place. Smartmatic’s filings fill in that gap: They show that Pirro’s removal sparked a backlash from the MAGA faithful that Fox’s CEO, at Fox prime-time star Sean Hannity’s urging, sought to quell by increasing Pirro’s profile and allowing her to comment without “being censored.”

According to the filings, Hannity told Pirro via text message on November 10, 2020, that he had already reached out to Scott to talk about issues including Pirro’s treatment by the network. When Pirro vented to her colleague, “I’M TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP AND I’M EMBARRASSED BY HOW THEY CALLED THIS ELECTION,” he further explained that he was “looking for changes” including “to leave u alone.”

Hannity may have already been getting results: Scott’s email the previous day ordering more promotion of Fox’s opinion hosts included Pirro along with the prime-time hosts. A few days later, promos for Pirro’s upcoming show were running and being distributed through right-wing channels.

A flurry of communications about Pirro’s show followed between Scott and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and between Scott and Fox executive vice president of primetime programming Meade Cooper the day before Pirro’s next broadcast.

“Has anyone spoken to Judge Jeanine before her show this weekend?” Murdoch asked Scott. “It would be good if she corrects the record and clears up the schedule change last week.”

Scott passed the request on to Cooper, who replied that they weren’t planning to make a statement about that and added, “David Clark is reviewing all scripts and working with her on her open. She is very into not being censored but he is working with her closely on it.”

“We don’t want to censor her,” Scott replied.

According to the filing, Scott “had a conversation with Pirro related to coverage of election fraud claims before Pirro’s November 14 show.” The same day, when Hannity texted her to crow about all the promos she was getting, Pirro replied, “I gave 3 demands. New producer. No censorship. 9 pretapes. Suzanne [Scott] promised me NOT overruled by Meade cooper.”

The newly unleashed Pirro used the opportunity the cowed Fox executive team gave her to promote election conspiracy theories that ultimately proved very expensive for Fox.

But it’s hard to get disciplined at Fox for being too supportive of Trump — she was subsequently promoted to the weekday panel show The Five and recently left Fox to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

### Fox exec: “It’s not the talents call” to cut away from White House press conference pushing election lies

Scott’s handling of Pirro shows how willing Fox was to bend over backward to provide editorial independence to its conspiratorial opinion hosts. But “news-side” personalities at the network who tried to shut down such claims weren’t so lucky.

The Smartmatic filings show top Fox executives expressing dismay after anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a November 9, 2020, White House press conference featuring press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and told viewers, “She’s charging the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can't in good countenance continue showing you this."

Tom Lowell, Fox’s vice president and managing editor of news, subsequently told other top Fox executives that anchors like Cavuto should not have the authority to cut away from live events, writing: “Needs to be a chain of command here considering the environment we are in. It’s not the talents call and [t]he EP [Executive Producer] needs approval from you [Mitchell] or Jay [Wallace] in the handling of pressers.”

### Fox’s CEO on airing election fraud “witnesses” live: “This is BUSINESS”

When GOP state legislators put on a series of sham election fraud “hearings” in late November and early December 2020, which featured Trump’s legal team and discredited “witnesses” with unverified or debunked claims, Trump praised Fox’s right-wing competitors for airing the hearings live — and criticized Fox for failing to do so.

Scott responded to the pressure by urging her network to start taking such hearings live in a December 2, 2020, email to Lowell. She suggested that the “witness testimony” at the events constituted the “evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist,” and concluded, “This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.” From her email:

The entire impeachment was about one anonymous hearsay whistleblower. We ran the Schiff Nadler show wall to wall. If we wanted to send a strong message to the audience, run the witness testimony. That’s called evidence that the news division has been saying doesn’t exist. Now will the results ever change. Odds are next to zero. This is BUSINESS. RIGHT NOW BAD BUSINESS.

Lowell admitted that the network had featured witness testimony in stories about the hearings without fact-checking them but warned Scott that airing the events live was not a good news practice.

“It is one thing for us to give a platform to the Presidents Attorneys and surrogates, or people like this guy on with Sean [Hannity] right now who signed an affidavit, but we need to be skeptical of some of these supporters who just wander in to make statements about things they think they saw,” he wrote in an email to Scott.

### Jesse Watters was told not to push election fraud lies, did it anyway

The Smartmatic filings provide new details about what Fox’s Jesse Watters was told and what he did during this period, while he was the host of the weekend evening program Watters’ World.

Watters was explicitly warned not to promote election fraud claims immediately after the 2020 election, according to the filings.

“On November 6, Watters texted Fox host Pete Hegseth, ‘By the way, did you get the memo about not saying fraud?’” the filing states.

Watters testified that this was a reference to instructions relayed by his producer, Megan Albano. In a text message the same day, Albano told Watters, “If we call the race, you cannot, under any circumstances, cast doubt on” the election because “the powers that be are not having any of it.”

This message did not stick, the filing shows: “On November 21, 2020, an original television broadcast of Watters’ World aired at 8:00 p.m. on Fox News. Dobbs appeared as a guest, discussing a ‘cyber-attack’ using voting machines to steal the 2020 election, and Watters presented an ‘investigation’ into Dominion and Smartmatic.”

The filing further states that in a text to The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld, Watters wrote: “Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL.”

Fox has since given Watters two promotions — he gained his own weekday evening show in January 2022, and that program took over the network’s “pivotal” 8 p.m. timeslot in June 2023.

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Newly released documents show that when she was a Fox News host, Jeanine Pirro – who is now the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — bragged behind the scenes about helping President Donald Trump to then-Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel. But one legal expert is pointing out one key detail that has so far been under-reported.

"I worked so hard for the party across the country. I'm the number one-watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the president and party," Pirro told McDaniel in one September 2020 message revealed as part of voting machine company Smartmatic's lawsuit against Fox News.

[vid]

, former Department of Justice prosecutor Mary McCord, who worked out of the District of Columbia office, pointed out that Pirro's messages may have had a self-serving element to them outside of her political views. And McCord observed that her efforts seem to have paid off.

"Obviously, this is going to be very important to Smartmatic's case, but it should be important to all of us. And I want to come back to Jeanine Pirro, because ... it looks very much like one of the main reasons she was doing this was to try to be able to seek a pardon for her husband from Donald Trump — a pardon that he eventually did provide at the very end of his administration," McCord told Wallace. "And that looks very much like some type of a quid pro quo."

IFrame Content

"Nothing we're seeing in there would would support an outright bribery charge because that has to be very knowing and explicit," she continued. "But it certainly seems like that is what her intent was. And to think that she is now the person making prosecutorial decisions in the District of Columbia is pretty frightening."

As McCord mentioned, Pirro's husband, Albert, got a last-minute pardon from Trump on January 20, 2021 – the day former President Joe Biden was inaugurated – as part of approximately 140 pardons Trump issued on the final day of his first term. Albert Pirro was convicted in 2000 on federal charges of conspiracy and tax evasion. That pardon was issued roughly four months after Pirro's message to McDaniel.

Watch the video of McCord's remarks below, or byclicking this link.

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Jeanine Pirro mocked with January 6 photos after charging man for throwing sandwich at cop

Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro — who is now the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — posted a video on Wednesday bragging about charging a man who threw a sandwich at a police officer with a felony. Now, the Department of Justice's top prosecutor is being flooded with responses on social media.

According to the New York Times, the man in question, 37 year-old Sean C. Dunn, threw a Subway sandwich at the chest of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer on Tuesday night near 14th and U Streets in Washington D.C., while calling federal officers "fascists." A detective said that Dunn admitted to his crime, saying: "I did it. I threw the sandwich." He faces up to one year in prison if convicted.

"Assault a law enforcement officer, and you’ll be prosecuted," Pirro wrote on X. "This guy thought it was funny—well, he doesn’t think it’s funny today, because we charged him with a felony."

Pirro's tweet was met with widespread ridicule by journalists, commentators, legal experts and others on social media, many of whom posted images from the violent January 6. 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in which multiple officers were harmed. NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach responded to Pirro's post by tweeting: "When President Trump came to office, he ended ongoing investigations into assaults on officers on Jan. 6, 2021." Journalist Zaid Jilani posted a screenshot of Trump's executive order pardoning participants in the insurrection, adding "????"

IFrame Content

Daily Kos writer Emily C. Singer quote-posted Pirro's tweet saying people who attacked police officers would be "prosecuted" and then countered: "Except if you’re a Trumper on Jan 6. Then we’ll pardon you and give you jobs." This may be a reference to DOJ senior advisor Jared Wise, who was recorded on video encouraging January 6 rioters to "kill" police officers. Former U.S. Ambassador Luis Moreno made a similar argument, also pointing out that Capitol rioters who assaulted police officers got a "presidential pardon."

"How about these assaults against law enforcement in DC," wrote former Obama administration official Brett Bruen, who also posted an image of rioters attacking police on January 6.

"You know DC crime’s bad - the U.S. Attorney made a video when a guy threw a Subway sandwich at a cop," former federal prosecutor and MSNBC contributor Kristy Greenberg wrote. "Call the National Guard - that sandwich had some mustard on it."

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In Washington, DC — where protesters are speaking out against President Donald Trump's federalizing of local law enforcement —

a man is being charged with felony assault for throwing a Subway sandwich at a police officer.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi highlighted the arrest in a late Thursday morning, August 14 post on X, formerly Twitter.

"If you touch any law enforcement officer," Bondi tweeted, "we will come after you. I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ. You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement."

IFrame Content

Bondi's post is drawing some scathing responses from X users, some of whom are attacking her as a hypocrite in light of the fact that Trump granted federal pardons to the January 6, 2021 rioters — including those who violently attacked police officers that day.

Reporter Sam Youngman tweeted, "When you know DOJ reporters are too chickens—— to call you on your obvious hypocrisy.'"

Attorney Tracey Gallagher posted, "You mean like the DOJ employing Jared Wise, a Jan. 6 defendant who called cops 'Nazis' and urged the crowd to 'kill em' as they stormed the Capitol? By the way Bondi hitting someone with a sandwich under state or federal law is not a felony.(18 U.S.C. § 111) you are missing an element here."

Gallagher, in a separate tweet, wrote, "You're missing the element of a deadly weapon OR GBI you have neither."

Self-described "constitutional conservative" Kelly McCarty humorously posted, "Sandwich crime arrests should always be the top priority for the DOJ."

Attorney James Hess commented, "But you won't go after people on the Epstein list?"

X user Pat Greentree wrote, "But if you work for a foreign spy agency and traffic children to US leaders for blackmail purposes they will protect you. THIS is the deep state, not a guy throwing a sandwich."

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The United States Senate has confirmed former Fox News television personality Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Edward Martin Jr.

Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed on Saturday, with a vote of 50-45. Before becoming the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show The Five on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump.

Trump yanked Martin’s nomination after a key Republican senator said he could not support him due to Martin’s outspoken support for rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Martin now serves as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

Other hires from cable news include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, a former reality TV show competitor and Fox Business co-host.

Jeanine Pirro arrives at Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards, November 16, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee [George Walker IV/AP Photo]

Pirro briefly entered politics in ill-fated attempts to run for the US Senate and for the New York attorney general, losing the latter race to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

She began earning wider public exposure by hosting a weekday television show, Judge Jeanine Pirro, from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, she joined Fox News Channel to host Justice with Judge Jeanine, which ran for 11 years, and today, she is a co-host of the network’s show, The Five.

Pirro has also authored several books, including Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy, which was published in 2018. The Washington Post described the book as “sycophantic” in its support for Trump.

After promoting unfounded conspiracy theories alleging election fraud in 2020, Pirro was named a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, which said that Fox had broadcast false statements about the company.

Fox News settled the case for nearly $800m.

Last month, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to send Pirro’s nomination to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out to protest Emil Bove’s nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.

Al Jazeera

Pirro, a 1975 graduate of Albany Law School, has significantly more courtroom experience than Martin, who had never served as a prosecutor or tried a case before taking office in January. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990, before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.

In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro’s ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

Source: News Agencies

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Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro confirmed as DC US Attorney after tense partisan struggle

New York Post

1 day ago

Jeanine Pirro — the former Fox News firebrand and onetime New York judge — was narrowly confirmed Saturday as Washington DC's top prosecutor.

Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital

Associated Press

3 days ago

The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital, filling the post after President Donald Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr. Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, was confirmed 50-45. Before becoming the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia in May, she co-hosted the Fox News show "The Five" on weekday evenings, where she frequently interviewed Trump.

Senate confirms former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia

nbcnews.com

2 days ago

The vote was along party lines, with all present Democrats voting against Pirro's confirmation.

Senate confirms former Fox host Jeanine Pirro as top prosecutor - UPI.com

UPI

2 days ago

The Senate has confirmed former Fox News TV host and Donald Trump supporter Jeanine Pirro as the top U.S. federal prosecutor.

Senate confirms Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia

CBS News

2 days ago

The Senate on Saturday approved the nomination of Jeanine Pirro, confirming the cable news personality to a top prosecutor post in Washington, D.C.

US Senate confirms former Fox News host Pirro as DC top prosecutor

Al Jazeera English

3 days ago

Former Fox News host Pirro secures Senate confirmation with 50-45 vote, becoming US attorney for the nation's capital.

Republicans approve Fox News vet Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor in D.C.

MSNBC

22 hours ago

Pirro's record made her a controversial choice to serve as the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. Senate Republicans rubber-stamped her nomination anyway.

WP-Bloomberg correction: JEANINE-PIRRO

Washington Post

1 day ago

This correction refers to the slug JEANINE-PIRRO (by Paul Schwartzman, Spencer S. Hsu and Jeremy Barr, Post), which moved May 10, 2025. - - - A previous version of this article said Albert Pirro was sentenced to 29 years and served 11 before Trump pardoned him. He was sentenced to 29 months and served 11 months. Trump's pardon came after his release. - - - The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News

Senate confirms Jeanine Pirro as top federal prosecutor for DC

New Hampshire Union Leader

2 days ago

The Senate on Saturday confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in a 50-45 vote along party lines.

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OPB

2 days ago

The Senate confirmed ex-Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital, after President Trump withdrew his controversial first pick, conservative activist Ed Martin Jr.

Senate Confirms Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for D.C.

The New York Times

2 days ago

The former Fox News host, whose false statements about the 2020 election were part of a lawsuit against the network, had been serving in the role on a temporary basis.

'Totally unfit to serve': Fmr. Fox News host Jeanine Pirro confirmed as DC's top Federal Prosecutor

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2 days ago

Jeanine Pirro, the combative former Fox News host and one of the most prominent and fiercest Trump allies, was confirmed last night as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Political strategist Rina Shah and former Special assistant to Obama Norm Eisen join The Weekend to discuss.

Former Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro confirmed as top prosecutorial cop for Washington DC

Fortune

1 day ago

In the final minutes of his first term as president, Trump issued a pardon to Pirro's ex-husband, Albert Pirro, who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

Jeanine Pirro confirmed as U.S. attorney for D.C. as Trump and Democrats trade barbs

USA Today

2 days ago

Jeanine Pirro won Senate approval as US attorney in DC as Republicans raced to confirm a long list of President Donald Trump's nominees.

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Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro was confirmed as Washington D.C.'s U.S. Attorney in a party-line despite Democratic concerns over her election fraud claims and Jan. 6 Capitol riot defense.

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The Senate on Saturday night confirmed President Trump's pick Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro, a former Fox News host and prosecutor who served as district …

Raskin After Criticizing Election Denialism: GOP Trying to Take 'Meaning Out of Elections'

breitbart.com

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On Monday's broadcast of MSNBC's "The Weeknight," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) reacted to the confirmation of Jeanine Pirro as U.S. Attorney for the District | Clips

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Pirro is a Trump loyalist who had a show, Justice With Judge Jeanine, on Fox News.

Former Fox host Jeanine Pirro confirmed as U.S. attorney for D.C.

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The Senate voted to confirm former Fox News host and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Pirro had been serving as interim U.S. attorney for D.C. since May, after Trump appointed her to replace conservative activist Ed Martin as the top federal prosecutor in Washington. Eugene Daniels reports on "The Weekend."

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The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital.

Maddow Blog | Republicans approve Fox News vet Jeanine Pirro to be the top federal prosecutor in D.C.

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Fox News' Jeanine Pirro was a controversial choice to serve as the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. Senate Republicans rubber-stamped her nomination anyway.

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The Senate voted on Saturday to confirm former Fox News host and prosecutor Jeanine Pirro as U.S.

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3 days ago

The Senate on Saturday confirmed Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox host and commentator, to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Pirro was confirmed on a 50-45 vote along party lines. Donald Trump named her acting U.S. attorney in May, and later nominated her to take the position permanently. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), …

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Judge Jeanine Pirro confirmed as U.S. Attorney for DC by Senate in a close vote.

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Former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, who frequently interview Donald Trump during her time as a TV host, has now been confirmed as US attorney for the District of Columbia. She has held the post on interim basis since late May.

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The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia after Trump's first pick withdrew amid controversy.

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The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital.

'Number-one show!' Trump touts 'show biz' accomplishments of his new DC prosecutor

The Raw Story

2 days ago

President Donald Trump touted the "show business" accomplishments of the former Fox News host he intends to swear in as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.The Senate voted 50-45 along party lines to confirm conservative broadcaster and Trump loyalist Jeanine Pirro to lead the U.S. attorn...

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rww

07/21/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Colby Hall @ Mediaite: Tulsi Gabbard’s Desperate Russia Hail Mary Knocked Down By GOP’s Own Findings

As the news cycle enters its third week of “Epstein Files” frenzy, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence pick, Tulsi Gabbard, is throwing a Hail Mary—an obvious and cynical distraction. But a GOP-led Senate Intelligence report from five years ago is more than enough to swat it down.

David Edwards @ Raw Story: Michael Flynn floats 'military trial for Obama' despite presidential immunity

Disgraced former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn suggested former President Barack Obama should face a "military trial" after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused him of a "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine Donald Trump's presidency.

Art Jipson @ The Conversation: How the QAnon movement entered mainstream politics – and why the silence on Epstein files matters.

Over time, what started as a baseless conspiracy on obscure platforms has migrated into the mainstream. It has influenced rhetoric and policy debates, and even reshaped the American political landscape. The foundational belief of many of the QAnon followers is that Trump is a heroic figure fighting the elite pedophile ring.

Matt Gertz @ Media Matters: Trump’s latest attempt to defuse the Epstein revolt: Point supporters at common enemies

President Donald Trump is seeking to reunify allies enraged by his administration’s repudiation of MAGA claims about late convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by offering up spurious attacks on common and familiar enemies: the media — in this case Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal — and former President Barack Obama.

Janna Brancolini @ The Daily Beast: Trump’s Autopen Attack Dog Vows to Review Biden’s SCOTUS Appointment

Amid the Jeffrey Epstein saga, Rep. James Comer claimed Joe Biden’s alleged autopen use was the “biggest scandal in the history of American politics.”

Thomas Joscelyn and Norman Eisen @ The Bulwark: Unfit to Serve: Jeanine Pirro Made Excuses for Jan. 6th

Senators weighing her nomination for U.S. attorney should revisit her remarks denigrating prosecutors and calling defendants “hostages.”

Russell Payne @ Salon: Meet the young Republicans who want to deport Zohran Mamdani

NYC's Young Republican club cosplays as a deadly political weapon, but may be less ferocious than it appears.

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April 29, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Five

JESSICA TARLOV (CO-HOST): There are Americans that are being detained by ICE, and it's not just one person, it's not two people. Yesterday, the story from Oklahoma, a woman and her daughters, her minor daughters, asleep in their home. ICE busted --

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): You already talked about that.

TARLOV: No, I didn't, it was another -- that's the thing --

PIRRO: Oh, this is another mother with two kids?

TARLOV: Well, the first mother had three kids, I'm glad you're so interested. But yes, this is multiple families being devastated by ICE. But this one is American and that's why it matters. ICE came into the house. There had been people, immigrants, who had lived there and they moved out a few weeks earlier. This family had just moved in. They came in, they made them go outside, including the girls, were taken outside in their underwear. They took their money and their electronics. This is an American family. If that happened to any --

JESSE WATTERS (CO-HOST): Alright, Jessica. No one even believes your stories anymore. They always fall apart.

PIRRO: Yeah, and you know what, they rectified it.

[CROSSTALK]

TARLOV: Literally none of it has fallen apart.

WATTERS: What about the Maryland dad? Whatever happened to him?

TARLOV: That didn't fall apart. He's still some prison --

WATTERS: He's MS-13, Jessica.

TARLOV: He is not --

PIRRO: And there are two orders of deportation on him and he lied about being afraid to go back to El Salvador because he had to admit he was an MS-13 gang member --

TARLOV: Keep going back to one person that you think you have a case about --

[CROSSTALK]

PIRRO: Jessica, let me tell you something --

TARLOV: If someone dragged you out of your house in the middle of the night, you would kill somebody. Literally.

---

April 21, 2025 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

DANA PERINO (CO-ANCHOR): Can I ask you though, so the White House was emphatic. They said again yesterday, he is never coming back. But when you say he's not in custody, is he free to walk around, he's free to go?

ANDY MCCARTHY (LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR): We don't know. You know, what we don't know, Dana, is was this whole thing with the Senator Van Hollen last week, was that staged? You know did they let him out for a few hours and have a minder there and once Van Hollen was gone, they put him back in the prison? Or is he free to walk the streets? We don't know.

PERINO: Okay, Tom Homan also, I'm not going to play the sound because, just for time, I just want to ask you this one last thing. He says they stand by the fact that they did the right thing here. What you're suggesting is if they want an off ramp, it exists in the law that they could find it.

MCCARTHY: It always has, Dana. They don't want off ramps. What I'm worried about is they actually want to use this as a demonstration that the court can't control them and they don't have to honor due process. That's the worrisome thing about this.

called out by aoc 4 yo SS scam

mocked by jon s lush?

Jeanine Pirro dismisses the need for due process for people in America being sent to an El Salvador prison

04/16/25

Jeanine Pirro attacks government benefits for orphaned babies

04/10/25 MMA

MMA

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro calls for the arrest of governors who don't comply with ICE: “It's time to take a side”

01/22/25

==---

mma

January 9, 2025, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Have we ruled out all outside agitators?

MARK TEPPER (GUEST): No. In fact, I think there were videos of some arsonists creating new fires. So no, I don't think that's been ruled out at all and given the terror attacks that we saw on January 1, I mean, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that that's happening. But you know, what's happening right now — at least for me — a lack of mitigation standpoint prior to this has to do with the fact that California is effectively a one-party system. And when you're operating under a one-party system, there's no accountability from the other party to help you make sure that you're doing what you should be doing.

BARTIROMO: That's a great point.

TEPPER: Gross incompetence. Having priorities backwards. All that stuff contributed to what's happening, not saying it caused it, but it certainly contributed.

BARTIROMO: But I'd like to know what kind of investigation is underway in terms of outside agitators. I mean, all of these people who have come into America and wanting to disrupt our lives. I would like to see an investigation to ensure that we know that there were no outside agitators starting these fires.

---

===

aha? whenever gop get caught being factually wrong they come back w/ non-seq? pseudo-fact?

an 1 25

Jessica Tarlov, a progresive Fox News host, attempted to fact check conservative co-host Jeanine Pirro on Thursday over Republicans' narrative that the New Orleans truck attack that left 14 people dead was due to illegal immigration.

"When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," President-elect Donald Trump wrote in a statement in response to the tragedy. "Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!"

In her response to President Joe Biden's statement, on the other hand, Mediate reports that Tarlov said to Pirro, "When you say, 'I’m embarrassed watching Joe Biden,’ I’m not embarrassed seeing someone stand up there and saying, 'Let’s wait for some facts here,' because Donald Trump went out there and he said…"

Tarlov was then interrupted by the right-wing host.

"No, he assured Americans all was well," Pirro shot back.

"No, listen to all of the comments that he made and the statements which said we need to make sure we have the right facts," Tarlov replied, "and the right facts were that the guy in New Orleans was an American. He wasn’t an illegal."

Pirro then said, "No one’s saying he wasn’t."

"That’s not true!" Tarlov protested. "There have been Republicans who have been on TV today talking about how this was an open border problem."

Pirro replied, "Seventy-five percent of the arrests in New York City are illegals! Let’s stop playing games!"

Tarlov shot back, "Move the goalposts! Move them as far as you want. Sugar Bowl-wide! Whatever."

Watch Mediaite's video below or at this link.

mma 1 25 deflection?

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro responds to New Orleans attack by calling the police chief “a DEI hire”

01/03/25

mma

Watch Chris Hayes highlight Fox News' deceptive editing in interviews with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

10/16/24 9:04 PM EDT

### Fox's Jeanine Pirro says if women were more “educated” about reproductive rights they wouldn’t care about Roe V. Wade

10/16/24 7:41 PM EDT

### Report: Fox News deceptively edited Trump's town hall

10/16/24

===

mma 9 24

September 5, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Five

JEANINE PIRRO (HOST): There is no evidence. Look, it's shock. The Russians are spreading propaganda. First of all, a lot of countries do that, in fact, we do that. Okay? So let's stop fooling ourselves. But the only bad actor in the world is not Russia. In fact, Russia is the excuse used by those who want to tell us that the laptop is Russian disinformation. Russia didn't tell us that. The Democrats told us that. The Democrats told us that and they changed an election with that because they suppressed our freedom of speech.

NOTE merge of racism and violent crime and border hype fear mma “they’re rapists”

Fox News returns to “migrant crime” fixation as migrant crossings, crime plummet}:

:{:{06/25/24 }:

4. ### Fox News' Jeanine Pirro says all undocumented immigrants should be presumed to be violent criminals

:{:{06/24/24 }:

===

:{:{mma 5 24}:

no accident day after hush money def implodes after fox pushed fail guy?

over a handful of hours on Tuesday, the right’s conspiracy theory ecosystem concocted a sinister plot by President Joe Biden to assassinate his predecessor out of the banal fact that FBI agents received standard instructions on the use of force before conducting a court-ordered search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022.

Hundreds of pages of filings were unsealed on Tuesday in Trump’s classified documents case, revealing that the former president — who is charged with 40 federal criminal counts related to his alleged willful retention of documents after leaving the White House — had multiple documents marked “classified” in his bedroom that were discovered months after the 2022 search.

Credible outlets reviewed the documents and produced a wave of news stories detailing what a judge described as “strong evidence” of Trump’s allegedly criminal acts. Meanwhile, Trump’s MAGA media supporters ginned up a counternarrative based on a credulous reading of a deceptive argument from Trump’s lawyers that was included in the unsealed documents.

The story that emerged from the right-wing media echo chamber posits that pro forma language provided to FBI agents before the 2022 search which stated that “law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary” was actually part of a Biden scheme to assassinate Trump. This is both a horrific accusation to make without evidence and facially absurd for any number of reasons. (Why would the Biden administration issue assassination orders in writing and then conduct the Mar-a-Lago search on a date specifically selected because Trump would be in New York instead?) But it spread quickly from its initiation by a key figure in the right’s January 6 disinformation community, through the ranks of MAGA influencers, to Trump himself, and then to the Fox News airwaves.

By Tuesday night, Trump’s campaign had issued a fundraising email in which the presumptive Republican presidential nominee alleged of the Biden administration, “You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable … Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”

The startlingly quick adoption of an unhinged conspiracy theory shows how the right-wing media apparatus operates, dreaming up convoluted but inflammatory nonsense and bombarding their audience with it. Here’s how it happened.

Right-wing fabulist turns standard FBI policy into “mind-blowing” story

The right-wing writer Julie Kelly, in a series of Tuesday afternoon posts on X (formerly Twitter), purported to reveal the “bombshells” she had uncovered by scouring the unsealed documents.

“Tons of new unsealed filings on classified docs case--I will try to post as much as I can (there goes the workout) but this is mind-blowing,” she posted at 1:21 p.m. ET. “FBI authorized the use of deadly force at Mar-a-Lago.”

She included a screenshot of a filing from Trump’s lawyers which stated that the FBI’s “Operations Order” for the Mar-a-Lago search “contained a ‘Policy Statement’ regarding ‘Use of Deadly Force,’ which stated, for example, ‘Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.’”

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Kelly went on to post the “Policy Statement” and claim that the instructions show that “the FBI risked the lives of Donald Trump, his family, his staff, and MAL guests for a publicity stunt to make it look like Trump stole national security files.” She added, “People need to be arrested for this.”

In reality — and as more credible journalists pointed out — those instructions are standard for FBI searches.

“These are the rules that apply to FBI agents whenever they do anything,” Reuters reporter Brad Heath wrote in response to Kelly’s initial claim on X. He added, “Agents - like all cops - can use deadly force when met with a sufficiently serious threat. The policy the FBI followed here applies all the time; they are the same rules agents follow when walking down a sidewalk.”

“One clue that this is the generic DOJ use of force policy — not something cooked up for Mar-a-Lago, let alone ordered by the president — is that it talks about the use of warning shots in prison,” Heath noted in response to Kelly’s post with the “Policy Statement.”

The FBI would later issue a statement confirming that the bureau had “followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force.”

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Kelly is among the foremost proponents of the right’s January 6 counternarrative. She has argued that the violent rioting at the U.S. Capitol by Trumpists who assaulted scores of law enforcement officers “was probably the biggest instance of police brutality that this country has seen since the Civil Rights movement,” described a police officer who testified before the January 6 select committee as a “crisis actor,” and suggested that the FBI fabricated the pipe bombs discovered at the Republican and Democratic national headquarters that day because it is “an enforcement arm, a surveillance arm of the Democratic Party.” And her interpretation of the filings made no sense and was quickly debunked.

None of that slowed down the ranks of MAGA influencers, who quickly seized on her story.

MAGA influencers run with “assassination” nonsense

Within minutes, influential figures in the MAGA movement adopted Kelly’s interpretation and effectively began competing for the most overwrought response as they furiously posted on X. Many alleged that the document showed a Biden-directed assassination plot against Trump.

“The FBI authorized the use of **deadly force** when they raided Mar-a-Lago,” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk commented. “You read that right. They were authorized to kill Trump employees, possibly even assassinate Trump himself, to exact their political revenge.”

“The FBI authorized the use of deadly force when they raided Mar-a-Lago?” wrote podcaster and former One America News host Liz Wheeler. “Were they hoping to assassinate Trump or his family or employees? This is insane.”

“So that was the real reason for the FBI raiding a president’s home: an excuse to use deadly force against Donald Trump,” offered The Federalist’s Sean Davis. “The court case was just plan B for the corrupt DOJ and FBI.” He added, “The FBI is a domestic terrorist organization.”

Trump ally Laura Loomer similarly argued that the document shows “a possible assassination attempt of President Trump by the Biden regime and FBI!”

Trump and the GOP lie that this shows Biden is “A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY”

Trump and his campaign are very attuned to the nonsense his online supporters generate, and within hours they adopted their bogus narrative.

At 5:21 p.m. ET — just four hours after Kelly’s initial post — Trump posted on his Truth Social account: “WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY. HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!”

Trump’s campaign posted his comment to X, where it was quickly reposted by an arm of the Republican National Committee.

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The former president’s most unhinged congressional supporters chimed in.

“The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light. Does everyone get it yet???!!!!” commented Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

His biggest media supporters were not far behind.

Fox “news” and “opinion” sides parrot the MAGA spin

Right-wing commentators have spent the last nine years figuring out how to respond to Trump’s massive lies. At this point, everyone who retains a major platform knows their role is to, at the least, soft-pedal his unhinged claims, and at most, to prove they are on board with the MAGA movement by treating them as truth.

That’s what played out on Fox’s airwaves after Trump declared that the FBI’s use of standard orders for the Mar-a-Lago search showed that Biden is “A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.”

Fox could have provide credible reporting tamping down on the lies circulating online. The network employs people who report on the Justice Department and FBI and even has Kerri Kupec Urbahn, a former top aide in the Trump DOJ, on the payroll. If the network wanted to find out if the FBI orders were standard, it would be really easy to do so.

But Fox’s business model and its political agenda both depend on propagandizing for Trump, so that’s not what happened. Instead, around an hour after Trump’s Truth Social post, FoxNews.com sent the following push alert: “BREAKING NEWS New docs reveal Biden DOJ authorized ‘deadly force’ in Mar-a-Lago raid.’” Here’s how the story’s promotion looked on the website’s front page:

From FoxNews.com at approximately 6:23 p.m. on May 21, 2024.

When the network first discussed the story later that hour on the flagship “news” show Special Report, the segment focused on the same “deadly force” language Kelly had flagged.

Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor, opened by highlighting that “former President Trump's attorneys argue the Biden administration Justice Department authorized the use of deadly force if necessary” during the Mar-a-Lago search. Correspondent Kevin Corke responded that the order is “quite shocking.”

Baier went on to downplay the notion that the FBI instructions were standard.

“There may be some people, Kevin, who say that this is just a policy statement of standard operating procedures put inside this operations order for this specific raid,” he said. “But obviously it's not standard operating procedure when you're going into the house of the former president, who happens to be protected by Secret Service.”

Video file

CitationFrom the May 21, 2024, edition of Fox News' Special Report.

When Baier offered a similar comment later in the hour during a panel segment, contributor Byron York described the situation as “kind of worrisome” because the FBI was supposedly “loaded for bear and prepared for the possibility of some sort of violent confrontation with the Secret Service. … The idea that it was prepared for this way, as opposed to, say, worked out in advance, is really troubling.” (In fact, the FBI ensured that “the Secret Service would receive a heads-up a few hours before FBI agents arrived to avoid any law enforcement conflict,” The Washington Post has reported.)

Fox’s “opinion” hosts have been running with the story ever since.

CitationFox News screenshots, 5/21/24 and 5/22/24

“They were actually thinking of using deadly force, or it's on the table that might be necessary at Mar-a-Lago?” Laura Ingraham asked Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO). “Deadly force? OK. It’s really lawfare, it’s not funny. Something actually could have gone down I guess at Mar-a-Lago, beyond just looking for the documents.”

Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro went even further on Watters’ show, with the host declaring, “Authorized armed agents to use deadly force in the Mar-a-Lago raid. That is insane. Is there any justification for that?”

“Absolutely not,” Pirro replied, adding that “my mind as a prosecutor goes to maybe they wanted the engagement of physical force. Maybe they wanted to come in without FBI, without DOJ, without all of that identifying so that they could engage in deadly physical force.”

Sean Hannity called the “deadly force” language a “shocking new revelation.” He acknowledged it was “boilerplate language” but nonetheless asked, “Why was Merrick Garland prepping for a possible, what, shootout?”

Fox was still carrying Trump’s water on Wednesday morning:...

---

===

How Fox hosts are reacting to the collapse of their FBI “informant” story

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

:{PUBLISHED 02/20/24

The right’s flagging effort to impeach President Joe Biden took another blow last week when the Justice Department said that Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant, had made up his accusation that Biden and his son Hunter had each taken $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian oligarch, and charged him with lying to the bureau.

Smirnov’s tale, chronicled in a much-ballyhooed FBI FD-1023 report released last year, was described by House Republicans as the “heart” of their case against the president. “The most corroborating evidence we have is the 1023 form from this highly credible confidential human source,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a January interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Right-wing Fox propagandists like Hannity had relentlessly promoted the informant’s claims, touting his purported credibility while ignoring the flimsy, sensational nature of his Biden bribery allegations. But they aren’t responding to his arrest by leveling with their viewers or reflecting on why they were taken in by unverified claims that “proved” what they desperately wanted to believe. Here’s what they’re doing with the news instead.

1. Ignoring it

Fox provided a mere 31 minutes of coverage of Smirnov’s indictment from Thursday through Monday. That total is noticeably scant given how loudly the network previously trumpeted the informant’s allegations; Fox mentioned “Biden in the context of ‘bribe’ or ‘bribery’ more than 2,600 times” in the year before his arrest, The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.

Several shows that typically provide robust coverage of the Hunter Biden probe ignored it; Fox & Friends provided only a single headline read, while The Ingraham Angle did not address the story at all (the latter featured interviews with a “body-language expert” as well as purported comedian Jimmy Failla on Thursday).

2. Claiming this actually makes Republicans look good

Hannity has been pilloried by the press for his credulous treatment of the informant’s claims; he promoted them on his Fox show in at least 85 segments last year, touting them as evidence of “public corruption” and “bribery.”

When the host finally addressed the informant’s arrest on Friday, rather than acknowledging that he had served as the willing tool of the Republican politicians who sought to inject the informant’s story into the public discourse, Hannity claimed that the new developments actually make those Republicans look good.

Video file

CitationFrom the February 16, 2024, edition of Fox News' Hannity.

The Fox host acknowledged that he had “talked a lot about” the 1023, but presented it as “very damning, but a very, very small part of what is the large body of evidence in the Biden impeachment inquiry.” After rattling off a string of falsehoods familiar to his show’s regular viewers but inscrutable to normal people, Hannity claimed that Smirnov’s arrest “raises a lot of questions” — but for the FBI, not Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who released the 1023 form, or right-wing media figures like himself who promoted it.

“When presented with information from a source that the agency so trusted for what, now 14 years, the FBI, as exposed by Sen. Grassley, they sat on that 1023 document and they did so for years,” Hannity claimed. “He was still working for the FBI and without any performance of any due diligence, they never looked into it.”

“So it's clear that only after Sen. Grassley made the 1023 public that the FBI then investigate the allegations of the document,” he added.

Hannity was somewhat more candid on his radio show Friday. “I'm mad that the FBI informant, the 1023 form in this case, that now this guy has been charged,” he said. “It appears that Alexander Smirnov was not to be trusted.”

“I guess I was stupid,” he concluded.

3. Layering on more conspiracy theories

The right-wing media have spent the last several years constructing a ludicrous, overarching conspiracy theory that federal law enforcement agencies are left-wing institutions which persecute conservatives. Some of Fox’s biggest conspiracy theorists are leaning on that to explain Smirnov’s arrest, alleging that the informant’s story is true and he’s only being charged with a crime because the deep state is trying to help Biden.

Prime-time host Jesse Watters — who has promoted a lengthy list of conspiracy theories, including spreading doubt about the brutal assault of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband during a home invasion — claimed on Friday that Smirnov had been arrested because “he was too credible.” He attributed the charges to the president directly, alleging that “this is the second informant Biden has arrested for blowing the whistle about his bribes” (it is true that this is the second indictment of a supposed “whistleblower” whose unverified, dramatic claims were previously touted by Republicans and right-wing media).

Watters went on to claim that “everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden syndicate or is connected to it has been arrested.” He then brought on former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan, who claimed that the Bidens “took out a hit on this informant, Smirnov. They have now disabled him, and now the public is going to believe, well, this guy is a liar.”

Video file

Maria Bartiromo, whose treatment of purported election fraud during the 2020 election helped put Fox on the hook for a record defamation settlement, offered a similar reaction to Smirnov’s indictment on her Fox Business show on Friday.

4. Diverting viewers to a different, similarly dubious Biden scandal

Some Fox hosts are following the right's typical cycle by moving on to a new MacGuffin after the failure of the old one.

Fox host Brian Kilmeade, for instance, presented Smirnov’s arrest as part of a “rollercoaster week” for “the Biden family business drama.” He briefly noted that Smirnov had been charged with fabricating the Biden bribery story, adding that it “turns out not to be true, but keep in mind that is an FBI informant, nothing to do with Republicans.”

Video file

CitationFrom the February 17, 2024, edition of Fox News' One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.

Having relieved Republicans and their media allies of any responsibility for endlessly promoting Smirnov’s tale, Kilmeade moved on to the new shiny object: the deposition of Tony Bobulinski, a disgruntled former business partner of Hunter Biden.

“He knows it all,” Kilmeade raved. “He testified that he has got receipts. He's got emails. He has got text messages showing that this business existed and thrived.”

“I cannot wait to see this publicly,” he concluded. “I can't wait to read the transcripts. That's all coming your way, he is going to testify.”

Sure, Bobulinski told his story on Fox’s own airwaves nearly four years ago and it dissolved under scrutiny. But this time … this time is going to be different.

---

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro: "The Republican Party is now the Donald Trump party" | Media Matters for America

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Jeanine Pirro says Donald Trump was "entitled" to receive millions of dollars from China while president | Media Matters for America

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mma 10 23

The Bowman “insurrection” farce | Media Matters for America

Right-wing propagandists have used Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY) local criminal charge for pulling a fire alarm to reignite their bogus claims that he is an “insurrectionist” and argue that he should spend “years” imprisoned in “the DC Gulag.”

As you may or may not recall, the right spent the end of September diligently trying to construct a major scandal out of Bowman pulling the fire alarm in a House office building. Right-wing media propagandists alleged that the congressman’s (admittedly boneheaded) move was actually a calculated attempt to stall action on the House floor, which they described as an “insurrection” comparable to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The story receded amid the chaos of the past weeks in the House of Representatives following Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal, but came roaring back on Wednesday, as House Republicans anointed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and prosecutors in Washington, D.C., charged Bowman with a single count of setting off a false fire alarm.

Bowman will plead guilty to that single count, agreeing to publicly apologize and pay the maximum $1,000 fine for pulling the alarm on September 30. At the time, he explained that he had been rushing from his office in the Cannon House Office Building to the Capitol for a vote, came to a door that was usually open but at that time was locked, and “activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.” Those claims were consistent with reports that members of Congress often go outside to get from their offices to the Capitol for votes, and Cannon’s doors are closed and alarmed on weekends, when members of Congress are typically not present.

The Capitol Police investigation into Bowman’s actions further supports his statements. An affidavit by the investigator included in the charging documents states that “security camera footage showed Bowman attempting to open the door before pulling the alarm” and subsequently “attempting to get out of the building through several other exits before making his way out of the building and … to the Capitol for the vote,” Axios reported.

“Based on the evidence presented by Capitol Police, we charged the only crime that we have jurisdiction to prosecute,” a spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office said.

But right-wingers have ignored or rejected all this in the hours since news of the charge against Bowman broke, instead doubling down on their initial claims. They have continued to describe the New York representative as an “insurrectionist” and complained that, unlike the January 6 defendants, he is facing “gentle treatment” when he should face serious prison time.

Video

CitationFrom the October 25, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Five.

=“He should go to jail just like the massive number of January 6 protesters,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld claimed on The Five, adding that Bowman’s stint in prison for pulling a fire alarm should last “years.”

Co-host Jeanine Pirro argued that Bowman’s actions had been a “political thing” by Democrats.

“They wanted to shut down so they could trash the Republicans. He was trying to delay it,” she jeered. (In reality, Bowman and every other member of the Democratic caucus but one voted for the bill to avert a shutdown and fund the government through mid-November.)

Right-wing influencers chimed in on social media with a similar schtick.

twts:

IFrame Content

This treatment of Bowman’s fire alarm snafu shows the continuation of three general trends on the Trumpist right.

First, many influential figures are either too lazy to examine the facts before commenting, or have total contempt for their audiences and assume they will not do so.

Second, they desperately want political prosecutions. If Republicans have faced legal accountability, in their worldview, Democrats must be made to face it as well, even if they haven’t committed the same crimes.

Third, Tucker Carlson’s twisted view that January 6 was no big deal has spread throughout the movement. The insurrection is treated as either a cudgel or a joke, not a horrifying disaster that should be prevented from repeating in the future.

That's how you end up with members of Congress jeering reporters for asking the newly-minted House speaker about his past role trying to overturn the 2020 election. Donald Trump’s efforts to toss the results are simply old news that they don’t want to talk about, even as they install one of the architects of the former president’s election subversion plot at the highest level of government.

The laughable right-wing effort to compare Rep. Bowman to January 6 insurrectionists

10/01/23 3:42 PM EDT

Fox host claims Rep. Bowman thought “he could get away” with pulling fire alarm because he is the “right race”

10/01/23 10:49 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson preemptively blames Rep. Jamaal Bowman for any future attempts on his life by right-wing extremists h

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mma 8 23 no lnx

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro blames “green energy” for the Maui fire devastation

Pirro: “It's not about global warming and it's not about climate change”

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 08/29/23

Video

CitationFrom the August 29, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Five

DANA PERINO(CO-HOST): Immediately, it's almost as ifany issue, if you don't want to deal with accountability, you just say "climate change."

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): Yeah. Well, I think I've said this before. In the winter, it's all about COVID. In the summer, it's all about climate change. Okay? And we just need to put more money into it. I heard today, the president's going to ask for more money for COVID. I mean, so here we go again.

But look. If what Maisie -- Horono -- if what Maisie Senator Horono says is true -- $300 billion to fight climate change -- how come this kind of thing is happening?

Alright, the Inflation Reduction Act was all about a giveaway to the green energy companies. In the end, it's not about global warming and it's not about climate change. It's about negligence. Pure and simple. It's about ineptitude. It's about an area that didn't keep up with what was going on because they were trying to get to the green energy next step.

And so, they were too busy working on green energy.They ignored the obligation of the current situation. They didn't fill the water reservoir, okay? They didn't turn off the power lines when they got a warning that there would be high winds coming. Andthey failed to follow protocol to shut down the live power lines.

And so what we've got now is the power lines are igniting dry grass and bush and people died as a result of it. And they didn't even send off the sirens. The guy said he was worried people that would run toward the fires if they turned the sirens off.

It's about an excuse. We live in a world that's all about excuses, that is blocked in terms of ideology. It's all tribalism. You're on this side, or you're on this side. Facts are irrelevant.

THE LATEST

Rumble promotes a video suggesting the Jacksonville shooting was a false flag among its selected “editor picks”

08/30/23 3:57 PM EDT

Jesse Watters hosts oil industry-funded scientist to buttress his climate denial and attack green energy

08/30/23 3:08 PM EDT

Right-wing pundits rally behind indicted former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis and fundraise for her legal fees

08/30/23 3:05 PM EDT

The right's latest attempt to prove Biden is senile is breathtakingly cynical

08/30/23 1:26 PM EDT

Attacking Biden's efforts to negotiate lower drug prices, Mark Levin claims patients can get the drugs free from pharmaceutical companies if they need them

08/30/23 1:16 PM EDT

Pagination

Current page1

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IN THIS ARTICLE

Jeanine Pirro

Jeanine-Pirro-MMFA-Tag.png

The Five

The-Five-MMFA-Tag.png

Fox News' Gutfeld praises Republican presidential candidates for promising to bomb Mexico

08/24/23 5:59 PM EDT

Fox News' Dana Perino says abolishing the Department of Education is “a great goal”

08/24/23 5:50 PM EDT

Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro calls for the imprisonment of drug addicts

08/17/23

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an 8 23 no lnx

Federal regulator’s verdict: 'Judge' Jeanine Pirro committee is breaking the law

Matt LasloandRaw Story August 06, 2023

Federal regulators are going after Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro — again — for failing to follow the law.

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Last month, for at least the 55th time — that isn’t a typo — the Federal Election Commission sent Pirro’s still-technically-active U.S. Senate campaign committee a letter warning it of accounting errors and missed deadlines. It threatened consequences.

“The failure to timely file a complete report may result in civil money penalties, an audit or legal enforcement action,” the FEC’s letter said. “The civil money penalty calculation for late reports does not include a grace period and begins on the day following the due date for the report.”

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But Pirro knows better than most that nothing is likely to happen. In these cases, the FEC famously huffs and puffs without following through.

Pirro for Senate dates back to Pirro’s aborted 2006 challenge to Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate in New York. Late in 2005, Pirro quit after an inept campaign and polls showing Clinton would trounce her on Election Day.

The Pirro campaign committee failed to file required FEC financial reports for at least seven years before trying to dissolve in 2019.

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That year, Pirro for Senate said in a hand-written FEC filing that its debts of about $600,000 “are not collectable as the (state) 6 year statue (sic) of limitation has long passed.”

It’s unclear from FEC filings whether the agency refused to accept the campaign’s explanation about the debt. The campaign’s most recent filing listed no money on hand, no fundraising and no spending.

Bruce Bellmare, treasurer for the committee, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The FEC said it wouldn’t comment on individual candidates or committees.

Generally, the FEC won’t let a political committee terminate itself until it’s resolved outstanding debts accounting issues.

Pirro’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine” show was a long-running Fox News staple until last year, when Pirro became a co-host of “The Five” — the highest-rated program in cable news across all networks, according to AdWeek’s TVNewser.

Despite her own unpaid creditors, Pirro last year criticized the idea of student loan forgiveness, saying, “This is a giveaway and it's disgusting.”

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FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Judge: Fox News host Jeanine Pirro's show is so 'caustic' her vicious attacks can't be defamatory ›

'Judge' Jeanine Pirro goes ballistic over criticisms of fossil fuel giants ›

'This dude is sick': Jeanine Pirro smacks down Jesse Watters for claiming that 'girls like the alcohol scene' ›

Right-wing figures argue that the Espionage Act is the wrong framework under which to charge Trump, suggest the Presidential Records Act instead:

As a guest on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Trump attorney Jesse Binnall argued that “Congress has decided to make presidents and former presidents specifically subject to [the Presidential Records Act] rather than Espionage Act” and that “Jack Smith's team has it completely legally wrong by charging crimes that quite frankly don't apply.”
On Fox News’ The Five, Jeanine Pirro called Jack Smith a “loser prosecutor,Jack Smith, who has been slapped down by the United States Supreme Court” and accused him of having a “political agenda” and said the case is “all over the Presidential Records Act, which is a civil suit.” She later whined that “what they do is they put out this narrative indictment, ‘This is astory of wrongdoing, national defense, and let's put an espionage, we’ve got to tie it into the Russia collusion.’”
Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett joined Fox News’ Hannity to insist that there are “two systems of justice. … One for Donald Trump and one for everybody else,” claiming that “Garland chose to bastardize the law [ by raiding Trump's home and then seeking an indictment.”
As a guest on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime, Article III Project founder Mike Davisalso suggested that “the Presidential Records Act, not the Espionage Act, applies.” Davis later said, “You know, I doubt a uniparty judge is going to go along with that, and so this will probably have to get resolved by the Supreme Court,” calling the potential charge a “bogus conviction.”

Right-wing figures allege that Democrats have committed comparable offenses without being criminally prosecuted:

Fox News host **Mark Levin** said Biden, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Hillary Clinton “clearly violated the Espionage Act,” bemoaning the fact that “None of them were criminally charged.”
Freshly-resigned Trump lawyer Jim Trusty argued on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle that the Espionage Act was “not in play when Hillary bleached 30,000 emails that were under subpoena,” also claiming that the prosecution has a “whole bunch of rotating theories because they can’t find the facts they want.”
An op-ed for The Federalist claimed that if “taking documents home from the White House is a crime,” there would have been a DOJ investigation of “Biden and his classified documents.” The piece went on, claiming that the case is an example of the “deep state” targeting “dissenters” like Trump and a universal, presumably conservative, “you.”

Several right-wing personalities claimed ill intent or misguided thinking motivated Trump’s indictment:

Turning Point USA’s Danny De Urbina tweeted, “The DOJ indicting Trump under the Espionage Act after they literally spied on him as a private citizen is the ultimate gaslight.”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board published an op-ed questioning the indictment, saying that the “charges are a destructive intervention into the 2024 election” and that “the Justice Department has taken a perilous path” by indicting Trump. The board also wrote that while Trump may have been “cavalier with classified documents, Mr. Trump did not accept a bribe or betray secrets to Russia.”
Rogan O'Handley (who operates the right-wing social media account DC Draino) argued that the initial DOJ and FBI aid of Mar-a-Lago was “so they could steal back evidence of their spying on President Trump in the Crossfire Hurricane documents,” also alleging that the indictment is “all a coverup.”
A Washington Post op-ed by right-wing columnist Gary Abernathy pushed back on the indictment, saying that while there was not a “good excuse” for Trump to keep sensitive documents, “bringing charges related to the possession of classified documents against a current or former president for anything short of colluding with our enemies or selling them on the black market is unnecessary, unwise and destructive to democracy.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-jeanine-pirro-calls-it-insanity-wear-mask-protect-yourself-wildfire-smoke

publisher?

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/fox-host-jeanine-pirro-goes-qanon-supporting-channel-promote-her-new-book

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/foxs-jeanine-pirro-appears-christian-nationalist-program-flashpoint-warn-takedown

On May 30, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro joined the Christian nationalist show FlashPoint for an interview where she pushed Christian nationalist rhetoric about a supposed “takedown of religion,” framed American Christians as increasingly under attack from “transgender nonsense,” and announced that she will be at the show's in-person “tent revival” event in June.

FlashPoint, a show that Rolling Stone recently described as “a rising media platform for Christian nationalists,” airs twice weekly on The Victory Channel’s TV and streaming channels, including on Rumble. The show is helmed by a panel of regular contributors who are longtime Christian nationalist figures and self-proclaimed “prophets,” including pro-Trump “prophets” Lance Wallnauand Hank Kunneman. Wallnau and Kunneman often push hard-right politics and make apocalyptic predictions about political opponents. In the last few months, Wallnau has called Biden the “antichrist,” referred to opponents of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill as the “trans taliban,” andwarned that God may soon start killing those who are “persecuting” Trump, while Kunneman said last year that Biden should be in prison for “treason” and a “demonic agenda.”

Christian nationalism, which contends that the U.S. is a fundamentally Christian nation and should be governed by right-wing Christian beliefs, has been on the rise in Republican politics and among right-wing media figures. FlashPoint has seemingly leveraged this wave of Christian nationalism to attract more mainstream conservative media figures as guests, including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, former President Donald Trump, and now, Fox’s Jeanine Pirro.

Pirro, who currently co-hosts Fox’s top-rated program The Five, appeared on the May 30 edition of FlashPoint, where the host, megapastor Gene Bailey, noted that his audience is “mainly conservative Christians” and that the show is not “fair and balanced,” adding, “We're the — way to the right of center. We’re unabashedly bold about who we are.” (Unlike Fox’s former motto “fair and balanced.”) The host asked Pirro: “When you see the left and what they’re doing, what is it you think … our audience needs to know that you feel like most of America doesn't understand about this current situation?”

Pirro warned the audience of a “takedown of religion” and erosion of “Judeo-Christian ethics” in America, claiming, “America is moving so far from that foundation that we are in a dangerous point that every person who is a person of religion or a person of God understands the inherent dangers of what is happening in America today.” Pirro elaborated that due to moving away from religion, “we are flirting with the kind of destiny that only destroyed nations and fallen empires find themselves in.” During the interview, Pirro also framed Christians as persecuted and warned that “people of faith need to worry about not just what's being taught in schools in terms of transgender nonsense, but what is happening in our society today against religion." [vid]

gENE BAILEY (HOST): When you see the left and what they're doing, what is it that you think — now our audience,Judge, is mainly conservative Christians — we don't say we're fair and balanced. We say we're the — way to the right of center. We're unabashedly bold about who we are. What is it that our audience needs to know that you feel like most of America doesn't understand about this current situation?

JEANINE PIRRO (GUEST): Well, you know, I think that — look, this country was found on the Judeo-Christian ethics.We, you know, when I was the judge in my courtroom above my bench, it said “In God we trust.” I think that America is moving so far from that foundation that we are in a dangerous point that every person who is a person of religion or a person of God understands the inherent dangers of what is happening in America today.

We are flirting with the kind of destiny that only destroyed nations and fallen empires find themselves in. And so that's why I wrote the book Crimes Against America. What the left is doing to our children in schools and to Americans across the board, and especially to those believers, people who believed in God and are faith-driven, is it is destroying them.

And, you know, we saw it with the Dobbs decision. When our own Department of Justice would not follow its own rules of making an arrest of anyone who is parading or protesting in front of a Supreme Court justice’s home in the hope of getting them to change their opinion. Not one of those people was arrested, but you could rest assured that everyone, everyone who was involved in any way — and some of them who were clearly innocent and found to be not guilty by juries later — who got involved in any kind of pro-choice objection ended up being arrested and ended up being prosecuted.

But any of the pro-life centers or the pregnancy centers, any of the attacks on them were not even — they were not even investigated. And so, when you look at what is happening, the takedown of religion in America, it forebodes a very difficult future.

…

And I think that people of faith need to worry about not just what's being taught in schools in terms of transgender nonsense, but what is happening in our society today against religion.

Pirro was also recently announced as a guest for an in-person FlashPoint Live “tent revival” event next week. Past FlashPoint Live events have made headlines for their overt Christian nationalism and for appearances by high-profile Republican politicians such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). One of FlashPoint’s regular guests, right-wing apostle Dutch Sheets, prayed over Greene at one such event and insisted she was “covered in the blood of Jesus.”

In addition to the Christian nationalist figures such as Wallnau and Kunneman appearing at FlashPoint Live’s June 8-9 event in Ohio along with Pirro, the lineup includes actor Jim Caviezel, who recently openly embraced the QAnon conspiracy.

[vid]

pirro’s interview on FlashPoint and upcoming “tent revival” appearance are just two examples of Fox’s apparent connections to the Christian nationalist movement. Fox has regularly hosted Russ Vought, the Christian nationalist figure who is reportedly advising Republicans on how to gut the federal aid programs, and the network has also propped up a harassment campaign against libraries that pushed the movement’s talking points. Additionally, since November, Fox Business has been profiting from weekly sermons from a Christian nationalist pastor airing on the network as paid programming.

mma 5 23

HANNITY (HOST): We get to the 2020 election and what happened? They had Hunter Biden's laptop since December of 2019. They verified it according to John Solomon [NOTE NO ID AFFILIATION] in the spring of 2020.

But yet, we had FBI agents that were meeting weekly in the months leading up to the 2020 election pre-bunking the Hunter Biden laptop story by telling them directly, "You're likely going to be the victim of a misinformation campaign. It may be about Hunter. It may be about Joe Biden. You better be ready." But they knew the laptop story was coming and they knew Rudy Giuliani had a copy of it.

JEANINE PIRRO (GUEST): Well, you know what the problem is with that? The problem is that is election interference. That is a crime. It's not only a constitutional violation of the First Amendment and the right of the press to be able to discuss things that are in the news. But they literally interfered with an election. We know that by the polls that came out afterwards that indicated that people would have changed their votes.

4 23

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-handling-jeanine-pirros-election-conspiracy-theories-reveals-full-extent-its fuckery

an ah 3 23

the latest developments in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News unfolded in a New York City courtroom on Wednesday. Media Matters for America senior fellow Matthew Gertz obtained copies of slides containing previously unseen conversations between Fox employees about the network's hosts, who despite management's misgivings were permitted to peddle former President Donald Trump's bogus allegations about the 2020 election.

Gertz live-tweeted the drama.

For example, Fox Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Scott reportedly wrote in an email to anchor Eric Shawn in December 2020 that "this has to stop now... this is bad business... the audience is furious and we are just feeding them material." Scott also stated that November that "I can't keep defending these reporters who don't understand our viewers and how to handle stories... We lost 25k subs from FOX NATION."

One personality, "Judge" Jeanine Pirro, was railed against by production staff in November 2020 over her militant defense of Trump's baseless claims that the contest was "rigged and stolen" by President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Pirro's scheduled monologue was "rife w conspiracy theories and bs and is yet another example why this woman should never be on live television," her executive producer complained to Fox's top brass.

Gertz noted that "Fox subsequently promoted Pirro, making her a co-host of the LIVE panel show The Five."

He added that according to Dominion's legal filings, David Clark, Fox's senior vice president of Weekend News, "did not believe Jeanine Pirro was actually a 'credible source of news,' even as he understood that 'viewers rely on' Pirro 'to be a credible source.'"

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-producers-thought-jeanine-pirro-was-nuts-then-network-promoted-her-its-top-rated-show

mma 1 23

GERALDO RIVERA (CO-HOST): Jeanine, why would George Soros -- Joe Rogan is so popular, he has millions of followers -- he says, "Why would George Soros want cities to fall apart and crime to flourish?"

...

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): What I can tell you, is that he is absolutely behind the destruction of law and order in America, which is creating chaos and anarchy.

jan 6 depo

...

It is an email from yourself toJeanine Pirroat a Gmail account on 24 January 1st, 2021.The substance of the email appears to be the same or similar to the 25 body of the memo that we were just reviewing. And the subject line states, 62 1 "Constitutional option." 2 Did you also send your analysis of the option for the Vice President at the 3 January 6th joint session of Congress to Ms. Pirro? 4 A Pursuant to my advice of counsel, I will invoke my constitutionally protected 5 right to assert the Fifth Amendment. 6 7 Q A Who is Jeanine Pirro? Pursuant to advice of counsel, I will invoke my constitutionally protected 8 right to assert the Fifth Amendment. 9 10 11 Q I believe Ms. Pirro is a FOX News host or was at the time. Why were you sending this analysis to a FOX News host? A Pursuant to advice of counsel, I will invoke my constitutionally protected 12 right to assert the Fifth Amendment

...

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-host-claims-biden-administration-hopes-rescind-title-42-goal-changing-america-forever

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): The amazing thing is, they're saying, “Oh, no, Title 42 is keeping people out. And -- but even if -- when Title 42 goes away, because it's no longer a pandemic, the truth is that we're still going to keep it closed.”

Are you kidding me? You're fighting in the Supreme Court to get Title 42 out so that they can come in. We're seeing people in foil there, those foil blankets, tens of thousands of people, half a million in one sector since October. This country is being invaded.

an 12 22

For the second time this week, Fox News host "Judge" Jeanine Pirro defended hate speech. The first instance occurred on Tuesday night's edition of The Five, when Pirro declared that antisemitic remarks made by disgraced rapper Kanye West and Holocaust-denying white supremacist Nick Fuentes were "repugnant by another standard."

Pirro's reasoning was that free speech is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. While that is true, the First Amendment does not shield a person from the consequences of what they say – a lesson that West has learned the hard way.

Nevertheless, Pirro made it clear that she believes that hatemongers like West and Fuentes should be allowed to post their vitriol on Twitter – a view shared by the platform's owner Elon Musk, who earlier this week lifted the site's long-standing ban on COVID-19 misinformation.

Then, on Thursday evening, Pirro doubled down on her stance.

"So what do you think about free speech, and Elon Musk, and Twitter – wait, wait wait. It's one thing to be anti-woke. But it's not anti-woke to be absolutely repulsed by Kanye West praising [Adolf] Hitler, or Nick Fuentes being lavishly celebrated at Mar-a-Lago. That's not woke," correspondent Geraldo Rivera explained to Pirro.

"Here's the bottom line. If you don't like what someone's saying, you don't have the right to tell them they can't close their mouth and they cannot speak. The United States Supreme Court in Brandenburg versus Ohio – I go to the highest court in the land – says no matter how repulsive the speech is, America was founded on the concept of free speech. Hate speech is protected. I'm tired of saying it," Pirro said to her fellow panelists on The Five.

"These people like [Massachusettes Democratic Senator] Elizabeth Warren who says it's wrong or offensive that one human being should decide. Well, I don't like that Tim Cook is taking down the AirDrop for the protesters in China. That's one guy. You know, it goes on and on. That's not up to us. The thing that makes America different from every other country is that we have the right of freedom of speech which means we have freedom of thought. We are not a fascist nation," Pirro continued.

Because of the First Amendment's provision, there is a growing debate over how much power social media giants like Twitter and Facebook should have over moderating their user-generated content even though they are not a part of the federal government. But as Rivera noted, some speech is downright dangerous.

"Are we free to say Jews will not replace us?" he asked, referring to the chants by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

"You're free to say whatever you want. I can slap you if I feel like it, but then I'll be prosecuted. Okay? Here's the bottom line. You don't like it, that doesn't mean the man or the woman is prevented from saying it. My god, how far have we gotten from the founding of this nation?" Pirro wondered.

"Alright," Rivera added. "Enough about Kanye."

Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/jeanine-pirro-defends-antisemites-twitter/

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/foxs-jeanine-pirro-warns-violent-retaliation-republicans-reaction-joe-bidens-speech

semi-fascists?

:{https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/fox-news-host-defends-elon-musk-potentially-reinstating-twitter-accounts-white:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:

November 29, 2022, edition of Fox News' The Five

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): Jessica, Twitter is a private company. Where does the government get off saying, "We're going to monitor this and we're going to watch it" and just, from a criminal justice perspective, you investigate crimes, you don't investigate people and companies.

...

JESSICA TARLOV (CO-HOST): It'll be interesting to see when all of these people who have been banned, and I know Kanye was only suspended for a couple weeks because of his anti-Semitic tweet, but it will be interesting to see how far Musk will go in terms of restoring accounts to people who are really repugnant. And I'm sure he won't bring on, you know -- bring back Nick Fuentes or an Alex Jones. But that will be --

PIRRO: Repugnant versus another standard. I mean --

TARLOV: What? No. Holocaust deniers are just straight-up repugnant.

PIRRO: Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment and the Constitution and the United States Supreme Court.

mma 9 22

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): The first thing that you've got to do is recognize that, not just McDonald's -- Caterpillar, Boeing, Citadel -- they're all leaving Chicago. I love Chicago, I lived in Chicago, it is one of my all time favorite cities, it's beautiful. And it's been destroyed.

...

This city is -- Chicago is descending into anarchy. And there's pain, and there's loss, and there's suffering. Instead of playing these nonsense political back and forth, why don't you go out into the community and find out what you can do for the people who are suffering? And by the way, part of your job, Mayor, is to make sure that the economy is good. And the one thing you don't do is trash employers, especially big employers, in your city.

So you're not worried about crime because you're making great progress and, you know, you want to fight with the business leaders. I mean, Chicago is a mess right now. And it's because we've got people and politicians like this woman who have no idea how to run a city, no idea how to stop crime.

LISA KENNEDY MONTGOMERY (CO-HOST): I actually -- I disagree with you there. She runs the city into the ground.

brad Reed @ Raw Story: Leaked email shows ‘anguished’ Fox News producer begged to keep Jeanine Pirro off the air over election lies.

Jeanine Pirro says the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago was “a blatantly political move” meant to influence the midterm election

08/31/22 mma

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-jeanine-pirro-says-she-supports-russias-arrest-american-basketball-star-brittney

mma 7 22

PERINO (CO-HOST): I am a little concerned -- I was thinking today, you know, the Fourth of July is Monday. How long are we going to be allowed to celebrate it?

GREG GUTFELD (CO-HOST): Some people won't.[ who and why? by whom?]

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): That's a great question. Some people are talking about it now.

4/28

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): And I find this so incredible, that Biden is saying that the teachers are really the victims here. Teachers are being unfairly targeted, that's a quote from Biden, in the culture wars. Are you kidding me? The teachers are the ones who said the parents were the terrorists and the Biden administration and the FBI ran with it.

So, here is what I consider to be the bottom line — that this is a new world order. We're now going to bring in the children into part of the government. They are ours, and we are going to decide what to teach them and you parents, we are not going to tell you about that — about it, but if you find out about it, it is still none of your business.

husband pardoned by trump? for?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/jeanine-pirro-smear-cassidy-hutchinson/

merlot? = elite?

republicans and right-wing media pundits have been falling over themselves trying to rationalize and discredit ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster Tuesday testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Scores of conservatives from Rudy Giuliani to Roger Stone and even former President Donald Trump himself have desperately tried to paint Hutchinson as a nobody and a liar, despite the fact that she was the assistant to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and worked just steps from the Oval Office. Hutchinson's detractors have also steadfastly refused to provide sworn statements, preventing their accusations from being properly vetted.

The latest attempt to smear Hutchinson occurred on Wednesday afternoon when Fox News host Jeanine Pirro claimed that multiple unnamed individuals supposedly from the White House told her that Hutchinson was never anywhere near Trump.

"Number two, she talked about hearsay," Pirro said of Hutchinson. "Now I talked to two sources today from the White House at that time. They both say that she was so low-level. She wanted people to believe that she was in the center of the room when major things were being discussed. She was not that person. That's factually untrue."

Watch below via Acyn:[twt]

--> kyle

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-tucker-carlson-and-jeanine-pirro-warn-progressive-district-attorneys-will-drive

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-every-one-us-who-uses-oil-russia-complicit-atrocities-committed-ukraine

GERALDO RIVERA (CO-HOST): I'll say this also: Any business person, any company that buys Russian oil is complicit. You are aiding and abetting a monstrous war criminal. You are just as guilty.

JEANINE PIRRO (CO-HOST): Does that include America? That includes America?

RIVERA: It includes every one of us.

PIRRO: America?

RIVERA: Every one of us.

PIRRO: America?

RIVERA: If we buy -- if we buy -- I don't know about the nations -- but, generally, but I'll talk about any business person in America or anywhere else who buys Russian oil, you are complicit. Your hands are -- there's blood in that oil. You may get a bargain on it. It will haunt you forever. Turn your back on it. This -- this has to be seen in the context of what it is. This man is attempting to wipe out the Ukrainian race.

an 11 21

no lnx

Revealed: Fox's Judge Jeanine orchestrated payments for ‘command centers’ that could blow up Trump’s defense

Travis Gettys and Raw Story November 03, 2021

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro orchestrated campaign payments for 'command centers' at DC hotels that could blow up Donald Trump's executive privilege claims.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and the city's former police chief Bernie Kerik had been paying for hotel rooms and travel related to their efforts to overturn Trump's election loss, but the pair grew concerned by early December as the bills piled up, reported the Washington Post.

"How do I know I'm gonna get my money back?" Kerik thought at the time, as he recently told the newspaper.

Kerik knew that Giuliani hadn't been reimbursed for his expenses or paid for his services, but their friend Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host beloved by the twice-impeached one-term president, called Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and asked her to help them out.

McDaniel spoke to Kerik by phone but refused to give him money, and instead recommended that he ask the Trump campaign to reimburse his expenses, according to the former police chief and a GOP official.

The campaign cut its first check to Kerik in mid-December with Trump's approval, according to a former senior campaign official, and eventually paid more than $225,000 for hotel rooms and suites at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., that served as a "command center" for efforts to overturn the election results ahead of Jan. 6 riots.

Those payments, according to legal experts, could undermine Trump's claims of executive privilege over documents and testimony related to the U.S. Capitol riots sought by the House select committee investigating the insurrection.

"[This] further undermines a wildly broad assertion of executive privilege," said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor. "Executive privilege is typically limited to the protection of communications involving a president's official duties — not to those relating to personal or political campaign matters."

Former Justice Department official John Yoo, who advised former vice president Mike Pence's staff that there was no legal basis to deny the certification of Joe Biden's election win, agreed that the payments could upend Trump's defense.

"If he acts as a president, he gets these things we talk about — executive privilege and immunity," Yoo said. "But if he's acting as a candidate, he's deprived of all of those protections."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

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GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

GlaxoSmithKline is a U.K.-based global pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturer and a leading Fox News advertiser. It has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into researching COVID-19 therapeutics and has partnered with the British government and AstraZeneca to set up a testing facility at the University of Cambridge.

The company has run over 3,000 ads on Fox News since January 2019 and recently advertised on shows that have misinformed viewers about COVID-19, including Fox & Friends and The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton.

Pfizer Inc.

Pfizer is an American biopharmaceutical company and a top Fox News advertiser. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to scale up its manufacturing capacity to fight COVID-19 and is running multiple studies into potential therapeutics.

Pfizer has run over 2,600 ads on Fox News since January 2019.

Novartis

Novartis is a Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer and a Fox News advertiser. The company makes hydroxychloroquine and has promised to donate its entire inventory “not already allocated to existing orders and customers” to combat COVID-19. It also recently established the COVID-19 Response Fund, pledging “$20 million in grants to support public health initiatives.”

The company has run nearly 1,900 ads on Fox News since January 2019. In 2020, it has advertised on shows hosted by COVID misinformers such as Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham.

Sanofi

Sanofi is a multinational pharmaceutical company, a manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine, and a top advertiser on COVID misinformer Sean Hannity’s prime-time show.

In collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi is currently testing a prescription medication designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis among COVID patients in New York with the hope that the drug can alleviate fevers and aid patients with oxygen intake.

Since January 2019, Sanofi-owned brands have advertised on Fox News over 1,700 times. Besides being a top advertiser on Hannity, Sanofi has paid for programming on shows that have advocated for the premature end to social distancing guidelines, includingThe Ingraham Angleand Fox & Friends. Previously, Sanofi dropped Bill O’Reilly’s now-defunct prime-time show when he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. It remains to be seen if the company will do the same when even more is at stake.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals

Vanda Pharmaceuticals is a therapeutics manufacturer based in Washington, D.C. It is currently running a clinical study of potential COVID treatments. The company has run 269 advertisements on Fox News since January 2019, including following Sean Hannity’s interview with President Donald Trump in which Trump touted “potential cures” for coronavirus that might benefit Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Bayer

Bayer is a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer that also manufactures chloroquine phosphate, and it is a top advertiser on Hannity and Fox News overall. The company has made multiple pledges to donate resources to fight COVID-19 in the U.S. and Spain. It is also paying for the spread of medical misinformation by advertising on Fox News: the company has run over 3,900 ads since January 2019, including 493 since the beginning of 2020. Brands owned by Bayer that run advertisements on the network include Bayer Aspirin, Aleve, Claritin, Dr. Scholl’s and Alka-Seltzer, among many others.

Gilead Sciences

Gilead Sciences is a California-based pharmaceutical research and development company that has a forthcoming study of its drug Remdesivir and whether it has therapeutic properties to treat COVID-19. It has run 269 advertisements on Fox since January 2019. This year, the company advertised on shows hosted by coronavirus misinformers, including Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro.

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a multinational biopharmaceutical company that frequently advertises on Fox News.The company is currently researching potential treatments for coronavirus using antibody therapeutics. It has also publicly committed to donating 9 million face masks to health care workers across the world. The company is also a major sponsor of programs spreading COVID-19 misinformation; since January 2019 it has run over 700 advertisements on Fox News, including on Fox & Friends, and The Five.

Takeda

Takeda is a global pharmaceutical company and a Fox News advertiser that recently announced it is partnering with plasma companies to develop an antibody therapeutic to treat complications associated with COVID-19.It has advertised on Fox 563 times since January 2019and recently ran ads on The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton, a show that has promoted an approach to COVID-19 that runs afoul of guidance from public health experts.

220

https://www.mediamatters.org/national-rifle-association/jeanine-pirro-who-pushed-same-white-nationalist-theory-el-paso-gunman

:{Fox News host Jeanine Pirro reportedly endorses far-right troll Laura Loomer for Congress:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

12/12/19 12:29 PM EST

Tucker Carlson spread disinformation about a deadly chemical attack in Syria.
Despite network policy, Fox’s Jeanine Pirro made a “surprise” GOP fundraising appearance.
Fox & Friends lauded Rob Schneider for “standing up for free speech” without noting he was pushing anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.
Tomi Lahren condemned the students who booed Melania Trump: “Can you imagine if this were Michelle Obama?” Yes we can!
Sean Hannity told disgraced former host Bill O'Reilly to “go back on Fox”

all in

Pirro says that the CIA is “attempting a coup against the United States president”

10/11/19 9:58 AM EDT

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/fox-host-jeanine-pirro-will-financially-help-trump-keynoting-jexit-fundraiser-his

Jeanine Pirro doesn’t just support President Donald Trump on her Fox News program -- she’s also padding his bank account by headlining an upcoming “Jexit” event supporting Trump at his Washington, D.C., hotel.

Jexit is a Florida non-profit corporation which aims “to educate and encourage American Jews that are currently members of the Democratic Party to exit the Democratic Party and join President Trump who is the greatest friend to Israel and the Jewish people.” The group also claims that there’s “anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.” Trump recently pushed the anti-Semitic smear that Jewish Democrats are “very disloyal to Israel” and has encouraged Jewish people to leave the Democratic Party.

Pirro is scheduled to keynote an October 20 fundraiser for Jexit at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Tickets to the event range in price from $165 to $250 for VIP guests (the VIP level includes a “private Lincoln Room meet and Champagne toast with Judge Jeanine”). All attendees receive a signed copy of Pirro’s new book Radicals, Resistance & Revenge: The Left’s Plot to Remake America -- which presumably means that Pirro also stands to financially benefit from the event. Fox News regular and Trump campaign adviser Steve Rogers will also appear at the event.

Pirro has repeatedly boosted the president's bottom line by appearing at events at Trump properties. In February, for instance, she headlined a pro-Trump party at the president’s Mar-a-Lago hotel in Florida for which the proceeds went to his club. That Republican financial support is a two-way street: GOP organizations have paid Pirro more than $230,000 for speeches since Trump’s inauguration.

Trump and members of his administration have frequently appeared at events at or stayed at Trump properties. The Washington Post has reported that “the federal government and GOP campaigns have spent at least $1.6 million at his properties since he entered office, according to a Post analysis, though the actual figure is likely to be higher because of the difficulty of obtaining up-to-date records.” And numerous people and groups looking to influence the Trump administration, such as lobbyists, businesses, and foreign governments, have also spent big money at Trump properties.

Other Fox News personalities, including Greg Gutfeld, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Chris Stirewalt (who is a member of Fox’s “news” division), have also appeared at events at Trump properties.

Pirro is also scheduled to do at least three events connected with the group Trump Team 2020 Florida, an organization which is not actually affiliated with Trump’s reelection campaign but which is nonetheless dedicated to helping him win next November. Pirro will appear at Florida events and give out her book to paid attendees on September 18, September 19, and September 22.

In November, after Pirro and Hannity appeared at a rally with Trump, Fox News claimedthat it “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events” -- an assertion has been proved false over and over again.

Pirro recently complained during a commercial break on Sebastian Gorka’s radio program that Fox News has restricted her book tour schedule, stating that the network “reviews everything. They’re unbelievable.” She also confirmed that the network “suspended” her over her bigoted remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and said, “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.”

clearly not fired 519 pal of djt thus access?

but

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/jeanine-pirro-rages-against-fox-news-and-admits-she-was-suspended-from-the-network

no lnx

Jeanine Pirro rages against Fox News — and admits she was suspended from the network

Written by Matthew Chapman / Raw Story September 4, 2019

On Tuesday, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro furiously criticized her network during a radio interview with alt-right former President Donald Trump aide Sebastian Gorka — and publicly confirmed, for the first time, that the network suspended her for hate speech.

“You know Fox reviews everything. They’re unbelievable,” she thundered, noting that the network is prohibiting her from going onto several other conservative talk shows. “You know what, they suspended me. And 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, a former prosecutor and county judge in New York who hosts “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” was temporarily pulled off the air in March after an inflammatory tirade against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). “Think about it: Omar wears a hijab,” said Pirro. “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 reported at the time that Fox News rebuked her for her comments. This is, however, the first time that Pirro has publicly confirmed that her disappearance from the air was a punishment for that incident.

Leading advertisers

Squarespace (Statement)

This list was originally published 3/27/19. It was last updated 7/23/19.

https://www.mediamatters.org/jeanine-pirro/fox-host-jeanine-pirro-pushes-white-supremacist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory

TODD STARNES (FOX NATION HOST): I've often wondered, who do they hate more. Do they hate Donald Trump or do they hate the people who put him into office?

JEANINE PIRRO (FOX NEWS HOST): Well, they hate Donald Trump. He's the one they want to get rid of --

STARNES: I see.

PIRRO: -- because people like you and me who put him into office, their plan and their plot to remake America is to bring in the illegals, change the way the voting occurs in this country, give them licenses. They get to vote, maybe once, maybe twice, maybe three times, and you've got motor voter registration on the day of the election. You've got people with -- We've got voter rolls that haven't been purged of dead people in years where the Democrats have resisted that.

Think about it. It is a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals that will vote for the Democrats.

Fox host Jeanine Pirro will headline Florida events for Trump booster group

08/28/19 10:02 AM EDT

grift?

Fox News claims that its personalities aren't permitted to participate in campaign events. This seems like a peculiar statement, considering how often they do. Just this November, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity appeared at a rally with Trump, forcing Fox to issue a statement claiming that the network "does not condone any talent participating in campaign events."

Media Matters' Eric Hananoki pointed out this week that Fox's Jeanine Pirro will be headlining yet another campaign event, this time in Washington State. The hose of Fox's Justice with Judge Jeanine, is the featured speaker at an October fundraiser for the Kin County Republican Party in Bellevue, WA.

Pirro has already made more than $230,000 attending and speaking at GOP events and does not show signs of being slowed by Fox's selectively enforced policy.

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/03/08/insane-toxic-trump-adulation-jeanine-pirro/219577

no lnx pix

The insane, toxic Trump adulation of Jeanine Pirro

Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro sold out her public image and debased herself to become one of President Trump’s go-to pundits

Blog ››› March 8, 2018 9:29 AM EST ››› SIMON MALOY

If you were to ask me who Jeanine Pirro works for, I’m not sure I could give you a straight answer. On paper, at least, she is an employee of Fox News, which pays her money to host a weekly show called Justice with Judge Jeanine. It’s a terrible program that exploits the well-worn cable news trope of using a crackpot pundit’s career in law enforcement to give unearned credibility to their howlingly stupid opinions. In theory, Justice with Judge Jeanine is a platform for Pirro (a former judge, former district attorney, failed Senate candidate, and speed-limit scofflaw) to give her take on the week’s top legal stories.

In practice, however, Pirro serves as a combative and vocal propagandist for President Donald Trump. Pirro makes it her business to be the loudest pro-Trump voice in whatever room she happens to find herself in, and she moonlights as an informal adviser to Trump, who reportedly seeks her out for her counsel. Pirro’s advocacy for the president is so aggressive that it often borders on insane -- some of her commentary would be at home in an authoritarian state media apparatus. And she has enthusiastically sold out the cause she built her career in public life on -- advocating for women who were victims of abuse -- to become a sneering and poisonous sycophant to the most powerful elected official in the country.

An ambitious rise and embarrassing fall

Jeanine Pirro does not lack for ambition. Her career in public life saw her score a series of firsts: She helped create and lead what was then called the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Bureau for Westchester County, New York; she was the first woman to be elected as a judge on the Westchester County court; and she was the first woman to serve as the county’s district attorney. Her ex-husband, Al Pirro, was a well-connected real estate lawyer and GOP fundraiser who knew all the power players in New York -- one of his biggest clients in the late 1990s was Donald Trump, back when he was still in the real estate game.

She had a talent for drawing media attention and relentlessly marketed herself as a hard-charging prosecutor who brought legal hell down upon sex offenders and domestic abusers. Pirro positioned herself as an advocate for women at a time when victims of domestic abuse were an afterthought in the criminal justice system. Her political ascent was durable enough to survive Al Pirro’s 2000 conviction on charges of tax fraud and conspiracy.

All this success and exposure made her a star within the New York GOP, which, in the mid-2000s, was desperately looking for someone to derail the re-election of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton. Pirro, the crusading, media-savvy district attorney, seemed like an obvious choice, and in August 2005, she announced her campaign for the U.S. Senate. She came into the race with a ton of hype and lofty expectations, and almost immediately Pirro proved she was completely out of her depth.

Pirro’s campaign was an unalloyed fiasco from the start. Her speech announcing her candidacy became a nationwide joke after she spent half a minute silently fumbling for a missing page of her prepared remarks (The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart cracked that she observed “32 seconds of silence in memory of the premature death of her campaign”). Her first campaign ad didn’t directly state that she was running for a seat in Congress, and she showed up at the wrong location for a press conference announcing the ad buy. Pirro was also a fantastically inept fundraiser. Her campaign pulled in just $438,555 in its first fundraising quarter, compared to Clinton’s $5.3 million. (Amusingly, $900 of Clinton’s haul that quarter came from Donald J. Trump, according to campaign finance records.)

With no money, no traction, and almost exclusively negative press attention, Pirro came under pressure from New York Republicans who wanted her to get out of the race so another candidate could take on Hillary. Among the high-profile Republicans plotting against Pirro’s ambition was her own husband, who reportedly urged state GOP officials to convince her to end the campaign.

Pirro quit the Senate race after just four months and opted instead to run for New York attorney general. She won the Republican nomination running unopposed. But whatever slim hope Pirro might have nurtured for a comeback was crushed in September 2006 when she herself came under federal investigation for conspiring to wiretap her husband, who she suspected was cheating on her.

No charges ended up being filed, Pirro lost the race to future New York governor Andrew Cuomo by 20 points, and she and her husband separated a year later. With her political career left a smoldering ruin, Pirro made the move to television. After a short run as host of a low-rated Judge Judy-like courtroomreality program, Pirro jumped to Fox News and started hosting Justice with Judge Jeanine in 2011.

Pirro enthusiastically sells out for Trump

Pirro’s affinity for Trump makes sense in a lot of ways: They’ve been friends for decades, they’re both Republicans, they’re both combative New Yorkers who crave media attention. But in one very important aspect, Pirro and Trump should -- at least in theory -- be irreconcilably opposed.

Remember that Pirro’s entire public image was built around her work on behalf of victims of abuse: women who had been cowed into silence by their abusers and left unrepresented by the law and the courts. Her career as a politician was rooted in the idea that she was a tireless and hellacious enemy of sexual predators, wife beaters, and perpetrators of domestic violence. A 2005 profile of Pirro in the New York Observer described her as “half crusading cop, half crusading mom” and said her career was defined by “work with victims of spousal abuse and sexual abuse, murder, stalking, rape, [and] torture.”

As a pundit, however, she has fanatically aligned herself with the nation's most prominent accused sexual assaulter. Donald Trump has faced too many credible allegations of assault against women to simply wave off, but Pirro has done exactly that, making every excuse for him, even when Trump got caught describing his own sexual misconduct.

“The comments are shameful and cringeworthy. The words are disgusting, devastating, and embarrassing. It’s the kind of locker room and frat house talk that personally infuriates me,” Pirro said on her program following the release of the Access Hollywood tapes in which Trump boasted of groping women by their genitalia. “But guess what: I still without a doubt support Donald Trump.” Her rationale aligned perfectly with the excuse offered by Trump: that his comments were just “words” and not to be taken as an admission of sexual assault. And regardless of what Trump said, she argued, he was still better than “double-talking woman” Hillary Clinton.

Pirro mortgaged her own reputation to defend Trump from his own self-incrimination. “He has always been a gentleman,” Pirro said on Fox & Friends in October 2016. “I know the man, and I can speak as a woman who has fought for battered women, I have crusaded for women my whole career to level the playing field for women who are victims of crime.” When multiple women came forward with their stories about Trump’s sexual assault, Pirro dismissed them as not credible and perhaps part of an anti-Trump conspiracy. “It’s a little too convenient. All of the sudden all of these people on one day on the day when WikiLeaks starts coming out,” she said.

Last month, during one of the “Opening Statements” that she starts each show with, Pirro lashed out at former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who resigned from the White House amid allegations that he’d physically abused his ex-wives. Pirro called Porter a “batterer” and lamented that “he doesn’t walk around with a scarlet letter or a sign on his forehead that says ‘I beat women.’” But she also went out of her way to exculpate the people in the White House who protected Porter for months, like chief of staff John Kelly, casting them as victims of anti-Trump hysteria. “You want to stop a four-star general who is running the White House, who believes in chain of command, who makes a decision within 40 minutes because you hate Donald Trump?” she asked before absurdly suggesting that the Rob Porter scandal was actually Barack Obama’s fault somehow. “Find another scapegoat. You might want to look at the last president.”

The reason Pirro has so enthusiastically set fire to her reputation like this is that Trump is her avenue to power and influence. She protects and champions Trump in the face of all the damning evidence because he’s her friend, and because he’s the president of the United States and he gives her access.

Softballs and poison

Jeanine Pirro’s access to Trump comes in several different forms. She’s not just a pro-Trump pundit -- she’s also an adviser whom the president routinely seeks out. The New York Times reported in November 2017 that Pirro had once interviewed to be Trump’s deputy attorney general and that she had met with Trump in the Oval Office to “excoriate” Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Daily Beast reported that Trump regularly consults Pirro “privately for advice on political and policy matters.” Pirro was the keynote speaker at a January event at Mar-a-Lago put on by a pro-Trump political group, and she’s reportedly discussed with Trump the possibility of writing a rebuttal book to Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury.

As a media figure, Pirro has scored two interviews with Trump since his inauguration; both were embarrassing spectacles that set new boundaries for the definition of “softball.”

Her most recent sit-down with Trump was on February 24. The “questions” she asked him were, in several instances, just direct invitations for Trump to praise himself. This, for example, is an actual question posed to the president of the United States by Jeanine Pirro:

Mr. President, your approval rating is soaring. And we can talk about the economy and the low unemployment and the stock market and all of the great things that have been happening with the economy. But you have accomplished all of this -- and, by the way, there’s a poll that put you at 50 percent, and at CPAC you were at 93 percent approval rating -- you did all this in one year with the economy. To what do you attribute these incredible advances?

“I know that you support the military and you’re giving them the resources they need -- are we going to have a parade?” she asked at another point. The parade (one of Trump’s favorite pet issues) elicited a follow-up from Pirro: “When do you think we can have this parade? Because I want to go to the parade!”

Her previous interview with Trump, on May 13, 2017, came in the immediate aftermath of his massively controversial firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Pirro used the opportunity to soothe Trump’s ego. “The media’s in a frenzy, and so given that some of these congresspeople thought he should have been fired … doesn’t it suggest to you that it isn’t even about Comey, it’s about anything that you, as president, do?” (Trump, of course, agreed.) That question wasn’t nearly as sycophantic as Pirro’s take on the messaging disarray within the administration. “Are you moving so quickly that your communications department can’t keep up with you?” Pirro asked. “Yes, that’s true,” Trump responded.

I’d like to think that any media personality bearing even the spindliest shred of professional integrity would choke on the idea of being so exuberantly obsequious to the most powerful politician in the country. Pirro, however, is not so encumbered.

The obverse side to Pirro’s gross deference to Trump is the noxious vitriol she spits at anyone who crosses the president, be they political adversaries or government officials who’ve drawn Trump’s ire.

Like her Fox Business Network colleague (and fellow presidential propagandist) Lou Dobbs, Pirro is a staunch advocate of arresting and prosecuting Trump’s perceived enemies for the crime of opposing Trump. On December 9, 2017, she caused a stir by calling for a “cleansing” of the FBI and the Justice Department (DOJ), which she said were full “of individuals who should not just be fired, but who need to be taken out in handcuffs” and whose “corruption and lawlessness” require that they made into “examples.” Her fervor for “cleansing” the DOJ was undercut by her difficulty in identifying any actual crimes committed by the people she wanted purged -- special counselRobert Mueller’s arrestable infraction, for example, was that “in a year, with a team dedicated to destroying Donald Trump, he can’t come up with one piece of evidence.”

That insane harangue caused a media backlash driven largely by the fact that Pirro herself was a former law enforcement official calling for a purge of law enforcement. The following week she responded with an escalating series of attacks on the DOJ, grandiosely declaring: “I hereby double down.” She said there is “a criminal cabal in our FBI and the Department of Justice who think they know better than we do who our president should be,” describing it as “a crime family like in the movies except this time the FBI is the crime family.”

Hillary Clinton also features prominently in Pirro’s weekly diatribes, likely due to Trump’s ongoing obsession with his former rival and Pirro’s own history as a failed Clinton foil. Last week saw huge stories break on guns, trade, and White House staffers, but Pirro’s “Opening Statement” on Saturday’s show focused on a tweet by Clinton about Trump and Russia. “The woman is even dumber than I thought,” she said as the starting point for a six-minute screed aimed at a candidate who lost an election 16 months ago.

Earlier this year, Pirro filmed a “Street Justice” segment in which she wandered around Chappaqua, NY, pestering locals with inane questions about the Clintons. “Does Hillary Clinton drop off her pantsuits here?” she yelled through the open door of a dry cleaner (the employee inside ignored her). Then she tromped through the local woods “looking for Hillary,” apparently because Clinton was spotted hiking there after the election. The segment was confusing and pointless but extremely amusing to Pirro. “You think she’s home writing another book? Or maybe she’s still reading ‘What Happened’ because she can’t figure out what happened!” she said, taking obvious delight in what she believed to be a joke.

The wages of propaganda

Like other pro-Trump propagandists in the Fox News family, Jeanine Pirro understands that the way to attract and maintain the president’s attention is through grandiose, inflammatory demonstrations of dog-like loyalty. Trump watches a disgusting amount of cable news and loves pundits who posture as fighters and scrappers. Pirro markets herself precisely that way: a brawler who brings the principled, no-nonsense sensibility of a crusading judge to her weekly program. But Pirro has no principles and her only crusade is deifying Trump. And for her service, she is rewarded with access to the White House and the president.

Corrupt arrangements like these have a baleful influence on how media figures behave. The most unethical and least principled actors in the media ecosystem are the ones who enjoy the best access and benefit from the exposure granted by their proximity to the president. This perverse incentive structure makes flagrant toadyism and barking lunacy desirable attributes (or, at the very least, it makes them less intolerable as trade-offs for access). The rise of unscrupulous pro-Trump whack jobs like Jeffrey Lord and Ed Martin speaks to this dynamic: inflammatory, manifestly untrustworthy voices given positions of prominence by media outlets because their slavish devotion to the president.

This rotten dynamic puts a sycophant and sellout like Jeanine Pirro on the inside track, and it makes the Trump worship and scalding venom of Justice with Judge Jeanine a formula to be emulated.

Posted In

The Presidency & White House

Network/Outlet

Fox News Channel

Person

Jeanine Pirro

Show/Publication

Justice with Judge Jeanine

Stories/Interests

Trump Sexual Assault Allegations

mma

For years, Media Matters has documented how Fox News operates as the communications are of the Republican Party. Among other examples, party officials cycle in and out of the network like a revolving door and Fox employees fundraise and even stump for Republican candidates.

However, on many occasions Fox employees went even further, using their close relationships to party officials for personally benefit. This week, Media Matters compiled a comprehensive list of examples of Fox figures using their proximity to Republican officials for personal gain and celebrity to benefit the party.

Here are some of the most egregious examples:

Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Greg Gutfeld, Sean Hannity, Pete Hegseth, Laura Ingraham, andJeanine Pirro have received over $500,000 combined in speaking fees from Republican groups while working at the network.
Members of Fox's purported "news" division, such as anchor Shannon Bream and Fox News Senior Vice President of business news Neil Cavuto, have also headlined conservative events, including alongside Republican officials. In one instance, Bream spoke at a conference that also featured then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (whom she later interviewed on her program).
Fox News employees have spoken at events that have financially benefited President Donald Trump. For instance, Chris Stirewalt -- a member of Fox’s “news” division -- spoke at an event for the petroleum industry at Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. And Jeanine Pirro has done events in which the proceeds went to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
Three Fox News hosts -- Brian Kilmeade, Pete Hegseth, and Shannon Bream -- have cancelled speeches at conservative events this year following Media Matters reporting.

At this very moment, Trump and allies of his administration are blocking more than 20 Democratic congressional probes. Historians, professors, and legal experts have explained that the administration's actions are unprecedented and that the administration's stonewalling of oversight could quickly set new precedent for unchecked executive power for years after Trump is gone.

Right-wing media have provided extensive cover for the Trump administration. Brian Kilmeade said, "So there are countless investigations. ... And for the most part, the White House looked at all of this and said this is out of control." Jeanine Pirro stated, "The only constitutional crisis is the one created by Obama administration officials of a false collusion." Jesse Watters, simply claimed, "All presidents refuse to hand things over to Congress."

There's a real cost to normalizing this blanket stonewalling. As law professor David Alan Sklansky said, “Our system depends on some commitment by both parties and by all public officials to continuing a constitutional order.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/judge-fox-news-host-jeanine-pirros-show-is-so-caustic-her-vicious-attacks-cant-be-defamatory/

Tuesday, a New York judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit by Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson against Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro — on the grounds that her show is so notoriously “loud” and “caustic” that nothing on it could be construed as defamation.

According to the New York Daily News:

McKesson, who is also a noted speaker and podcast host, sued Pirro in December 2017 for claiming on-air that he had “directed” violence against a Baton Rouge police officer. McKesson said that wasn’t true.

Pirro argued that she was merely expressing the opinion that the injured officer could sue McKesson, arguing he is liable for the officer’s injuries.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Robert Kalish agreed that Pirro had the right to express such an opinion, and noted that Pirro’s own lawyer had described her shtick as “loud, caustic and hard hitting.”

“Pirro’s lack of temperament, and caustic commentary is what she is known, celebrated and frequently criticized for,” Kalish wrote.

Kalish did appear to acknowledge that there was a clear racial element in Pirro’s attack on McKesson, saying that “This Court is not blind to the undertones in this segment.” Nonetheless, Kalish found that Pirro’s words were protected speech.

While the situation clearly represents a legal gray area, the judge’s decision is not without its own risks, as attacks from Fox News personalities have caused serious harm. Most famously, in 2009, abortion doctor George Tiller was fatally shot at his own church in Kansas after weeks of inflammatory invective from then-Fox News primetime host Bill O’Reilly, who declared him “Tiller the Baby Killer,” called his clinic a “death mill,” and equated him with the Nazis, al-Qaeda, and pedophiles.

Pirro, a former prosecutor and local judge, has faced controversy recently over a segment attacking Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), in which she speculatedthat Omar’s wearing of a traditional hijab is “indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution.” Fox News released a statement saying that “we strongly condemn” Pirro’s comments, and she has not been back on the air since.

tucker stays? she's a sacrifice?

nope

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/14/advertisers-ditch-carlsons-pirros-fox-news-shows-as-protesters-urge-companies-to-join-them/

March 16, Fox News pulled Jeanine Pirro's Justice with Judge Jeanine from its weekly Saturday night slot after a week of outrage over her anti-Muslim rant against a sitting congresswoman. The next morning, President Donald Trump lashed out in a series of tweets, demanding Fox “Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro” and “fight for our Country.”

During her March 9 show, Pirro suggested that Rep. Ihlan Omar's (D-MN) hijab was "indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution."

This outright bigotry prompted widespread outrage. A day later, Fox finally addressed it, saying that "we strongly condemn" Pirro's remarks and that it "addressed the matter with her directly." Fox's statement was accompanied by a separate statement from Pirro in which she neither apologized nor showed any remorse from what she said.

There are four fundamental truths at play here. First, Fox News is under a lot of pressure following advertiser losses as a result of the network's malfeasance and bigotry. Second, Fox News is a propaganda machine for Trump, with the two entities essentially merged. Third, Pirro's show is fundamentally bigoted to its core; she can never meaningfully distance herself from anti-Muslim statements since she's been doing it for years. Third, the Fox News audience wants the bigoted and anti-Muslim statements. They've been fed this for years, and now expect no less. That's why you've seen people like Sebastian Gorka loudly defend Pirro this week.

In terms of any discipline for Pirro, Fox News kept mum for several days on the matter; CNN's Brian Stelter is now reporting, per one source, that Pirro has been suspended for two weeks. But Fox executives' instinctive secrecy just shows how afraid they are of their network’s audience: If Fox News were a real news organization, then at a minimum it would say on air that Pirro's remarks were unacceptable and communicate what it is doing to its audience.

Instead of doing any of that, Fox News wants to send one message to its hard-right audience and an entirely different message to its advertisers. They are welcome to try, but the Fox audience will never abet any meaningful move away from bigotry, and the rest of the public (and advertisers) don't have to play along. These are the tactics of a propaganda outlet, not a news organization.

But it is clear Fox's ploy is not working. Advertisers are still staying away. And even the Fox audience will never abet any meaningful move away from bigotry. Just this morning, Trump tweeted that Pirro should be brought back

fox News issues weak condemnation of Jeanine Pirro’s Islamophobic comments attacking Congresswoman Omar — but won’t fire her

pow booktv

Fox's Jeanine Pirro suggests both that there were "more votes than people" in Florida and that a "truckload" of ballots were destroyed

Video November 9, 2018 10:54 AM EST

Matt Schlapp: Gillum's call to "count every vote" means "count the votes of people who are not legally allowed to vote

tucker still there; was it NZ shooting? is she a symboliic scarifice?

During her March 9 show, Pirro suggested that Rep. Ihlan Omar's (D-MN) hijab was "indicative of her adherence to sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution."

Jeanine Pirro

At first glance, Fox’s Jeanine Pirro seems an obvious choice for the summit. As the first woman elected to serve as the district attorney in New York’s Westchester County, Pirro spent years working on behalf of abuse survivors, often women and children. Since her years as DA, however, Pirro has seemingly turned her back on abuse victims, using her Fox show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, to downplay sexual misconduct allegations.

When Pirro’s former Fox colleague Gretchen Carlson reported then-Fox CEO Roger Ailes’ many instances of severe sexual misconduct, Pirro aggressively defended Ailes, dismissing Carlson’s lawsuit as “absurd” and describing Ailes as a “no-nonsense guy.”
In October 2016, Pirro was quick to defend then-candidate Donald Trump after the release of an Access Hollywood video, which caught him bragging about sexually assaulting women. Two days after the video was released, Pirro dismissed Trump’s violent remarks as “locker room talk" and "frat house language." She also proudly announced that the video did nothing to change her vote, and that Trump was still an undoubtedly better choice than “double-talking woman” Hillary Clinton.
Days later, when multiple women reported that Trump had touched them inappropriately, Pirro rejectedtheir reports as “a little too convenient” and criticized their timing.

Dana Loesch

NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch is a remarkably bad choice to speak at a women’s conference, considering her numerous glib comments about rape, her mischaracterization of issues that advance gender equality, and her cruel attacks against transgender women. Additionally, Loesch has openly ridiculed college-aged women, the demographic TPUSA’s summit is aiming to capture, for wanting access to contraceptives.

After conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh aimed misogynistic insults at Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student who testified in front of Congress about access to contraceptives, Loesch launched a barrage of heinous attacks against her. She denounced Fluke as unable “to control her sexual urges” and claimed that Fluke had testified that she “simply cannot stop getting it on.”
Loesch then extended her attacks to seemingly include all college-aged women who want access to contraceptives, ridiculing them for acting “like they’re nymphos” and dismissing young women's call for contraceptives coverage as "insulting to the original spirit and intent of the suffrage movement."

Loesch has a history of making flippant remarks and ill-advised jokes about rape, including comparingthe penalization of gun owners for improperly storing firearms to “shaming a rape survivor.”
Loesch has been quick to fearmonger about false reports of sexual assault (which researchers say make up only an estimated 2 to 8 percent of allegations), and she came immediately to the defense of former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) after he claimed that it’s “really rare" for women subjected to "legitimate rape" to become pregnant.
In addition to her trivializing rhetoric on rape, Loesch has made careless and insensitive comments about gender, including claiming that some women “wouldn’t know what masculinity was if it hit them in the face."
According to Loesch, the gender wage gap is “an absolute myth.” And after actress Jennifer Lawrence wrote an essay describing her own experience with pay inequality, Loesch denied that “sexism” played a role in Lawrence’s experience, instead accusing Lawrence of having a “self esteem issue.”
Loesch has additionally aimed cruel and dangerous attacks at transgender women, going out of her way to misgender former soldier and whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
Loesch also claimed that Manning was given “preferential treatment” and an “unnecessary surgery” when she received hormone therapy while in prison. In reality, hormone therapy is medically necessary, and to say otherwise simply serves to dismiss the health needs of transgender women.

Pirro's Trumpian dreams

A new report reveals that Fox host and Trump pal Jeanine Pirro wants to be the attorney general. Under normal circumstances this would be laughable, but Donald Trump has already appointed cable news pundits as his top economic and national security advisers.

So, knowing that Trump watches her show, Pirro has repeatedly gone after current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, urging him to resign and even calling him "the most dangerous man in America" for what Pirro argues is an apparent lack of loyalty to Trump by refusing to turn the Justice Department fully into a weapon to attack Trump's enemies. But as Simon Maloy points out, it's Pirro's grotesqueness that draws Trump in. There's a very real possibility in the future that Trump nominates Pirro for AG or a position even higher.

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