Jeanine Pirro

Some Lesser Known Facts About Jeanine Pirro

• Jeanine Pirro grew up in Elmira, New York, USA.

• Her family followed the Maronite Catholic faith, a branch of Eastern Catholicism.

• Jeanine decided to be an attorney at six.

  

• While attending Notre Dame High School in Elmira, she interned at the Chemung County District Attorney’s office.

• Pirro then worked as an editor for the law review at Albany Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1975.

  

• In 1975, Pirro was appointed as the Assistant District Attorney of Westchester County, New York, by District Attorney Carl Vergari. She started out handling minor cases and writing appeals.

• In 1977, Jeanine convinced Vergari to seek federal funding to set up special domestic violence units in local District Attorney offices, which was important because a new law moved these cases to criminal court. Vergari agreed, and his office was one of four in the country to get the funding.

• In 1978, Vergari made Pirro the first chief of the new Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Bureau. Pirro was known for being tough and did not allow cases to be dropped just because a victim wanted to.

• Vergari warned Jeanine several times for breaking office rules by putting her name instead of his on official press releases. Their relationship ended in the late 1980s when Pirro claimed full credit for starting the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Bureau.

• During her unsuccessful 1986 campaign for New York Lieutenant Governor, Pirro claimed she never lost a case in around 50 trials. However, in 2005, some colleagues said she had handled no more than 10 trials herself. Her spokesperson later explained that as an Assistant District Attorney, Pirro had a perfect record in felony convictions.

• On 26 May 1986, while working as an assistant district attorney, Pirro was picked to run for lieutenant governor alongside Andrew O’Rourke, the Republicans’ expected nominee for governor. She was chosen after several others turned down the offer. However, her selection raised concerns within the party.

• On 28 May 1986, Jeanine withdrew from the lieutenant governor race, saying her husband’s business connections, some of which involved state contracts and a stake in a company later linked to alleged mafia connections, would create a conflict of interest.

• On 1 June 1990, Pirro made headlines by visiting Maria Amaya at United Hospital’s ICU in Port Chester. Amaya, a 36-year-old immigrant from El Salvador with mental health struggles, was accused of killing her four children and trying to kill herself because she thought they were involved with drugs and sex.

• In 1990, Pirro became the first woman elected as a judge on the Westchester County Court. She stepped away from her role in the District Attorney’s office after winning the seat, defeating candidates from the Democratic and Right to Life parties.

  

• In November 1993, Pirro became the first woman to be elected as Westchester County District Attorney. She was re-elected to the position in 1997 and 2001.

• On 31 December 1993, Jeanine was sworn in as District Attorney. Just hours later, newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas was brutally attacked in her sleep by her estranged husband, Scott Douglas, who struck her with a hammer. Anne died in the hospital on 6 January, while Scott fled the scene and later committed suicide by jumping off the Tappan Zee Bridge.

• Pirro gained national attention after the Douglas case. When the high-profile O. J. Simpson case, where the former football star was accused of murdering his ex-wife, made headlines in mid-1994, Pirro became a regular legal expert on shows like Nightline, Larry King Live, and Geraldo.

• During her early months as Westchester County District Attorney in 1994, Pirro spent thousands on renovating her office. The upgrades included a $20,000 media room and kitchenette, along with new mahogany furnishings for her workspace.

• During her time as Westchester County District Attorney, Pirro became the first woman to lead the New York State District Attorneys Association. Governor George Pataki also appointed her to head a state commission on domestic violence fatalities.

  

• While serving as district attorney, Pirro declined requests to reopen the case of Jeffrey Deskovic, who had been convicted at 17 for the 1990 murder of Angela Correa. Years later, DNA evidence proved his innocence, and the real criminal admitted to the crime. Deskovic spent 16 years in prison before being released and later received $41.6 million in compensation for the wrongful conviction.

• Years before Jeanine and Albert Pirro had children, a Florida woman claimed Albert to be the father of her daughter. Although he denied it at first, DNA tests confirmed his paternity, and in 1998, he was ordered to pay child support.

• On 23 February 1999, Jeanine Pirro’s husband, Albert, was charged with conspiracy, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns for hiding over $1 million in income between 1988 and 1997. At a press conference that day, Pirro defended him, calling the investigation “invasive and hostile.”

• In June 2000, Jeanine Pirro’s husband was found guilty of tax crimes. He spent 17 months in prison and even took part in an alcoholism treatment program. During the trial, Jeanine said the prosecutors unfairly tried to involve her in the case.

• Pirro has written several books, including both fiction and nonfiction works. In 2003, she published her first crime novel, ‘To Punish and Protect: A DA’s Fight Against a System That Coddles Criminals.’ She published her second crime novel in 2004.

• On 23 May 2005, Jeanine Pirro announced she would not run for a fourth term as Westchester County District Attorney. She said it would be unfair to ask voters to re-elect her and then run for another office soon after.

• On 10 August 2005, Pirro announced that she would run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Hillary Clinton. However, her campaign was weakened early on when she lost the 10th page of her speech and paused for 32 seconds.

  

• During her 2005 Senate campaign, Jeanine supported abortion rights and Medicaid funding for abortions, though she opposed late-term abortions.

• On 21 December 2005, Pirro withdrew from the New York Senate race due to low fundraising and poll results against Hillary Clinton. She said her law enforcement experience made her better suited to run for state attorney general instead.

•  Pirro’s New York Senate race campaign ended with $600,000 in unpaid bills, some of which remained unsettled years later.

• In 2005, Jeanine Pirro suspected her husband of having an affair, so she had him followed and talked to her friend Bernard Kerik about secretly recording him. She, however, never actually recorded anything.

• On 31 May 2006, Pirro was chosen as the Republican nominee for New York Attorney General without opposition. In the general election, she lost to Andrew Cuomo, who won with 58% of the votes.

• In 2006, Pirro and Kerik’s conversations about recording Albert were found during an investigation into Kerik’s business dealings. Pirro said she was angry about her husband’s past cheating and wanted to know the truth. The news broke during her election campaign and caused problems.

  

• During her 2006 campaign for State Attorney General, Pirro advocated for protecting LGBT individuals from discrimination and favoured legal recognition of same-sex civil unions. Although she did not endorse same-sex marriage, she resisted constitutional amendments aimed at banning it and pledged to defend such laws if passed.

• In 2006, Pirro joined a Pride Parade and attended a fundraising event for the Log Cabin Republicans. However, eight years later, she invited William Owens, a known opponent of same-sex marriage from the National Organization for Marriage, to appear on her show.

• Jeanine Pirro and Albert separated in 2007 because of his legal troubles and affair with another woman, which caused public scandals. Their troubled marriage affected her political career, and they finalised their divorce in 2013.

• On 5 May 2008, Jeanine started hosting a courtroom show called ‘Judge Jeanine Pirro,’ which aired on The CW.

  

• In 2009, the courtroom show ‘Judge Jeanine Pirro’ started airing on channels other than The CW. It received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 2010 and won the award in 2011, but the show was cancelled later that year because of low ratings.

• In 2011, Jeanine started hosting the show ‘Justice with Judge Jeanine’ on Fox News and also served as its producer and writer. The weekend program highlighted key legal cases and issues of the week.

  

• In 2012, Pirro teamed up with author Pete Earley to write ‘Sly Fox,’ a novel inspired by her early career as a 25-year-old assistant district attorney in Westchester. She released the sequel, ‘Clever Fox: A Dani Fox Novel,’ in 2014.

  

• In 2014, Jeanine Pirro said President Barack Obama should be removed from office because she felt he failed to protect Americans during the 2012 Benghazi attack, where militants killed the U.S. ambassador and others.

• Jeanine was featured in HBO’s six-part docuseries ‘The Jinx’ (2015-2024), where she discussed her involvement in the long-unsolved case of Kathie Durst’s 1982 disappearance, which she had investigated as a prosecutor.

  

• Jeanine Pirro has been a dedicated supporter of Donald Trump for many years. She has often defended him on television shows and even called out anyone she felt was not loyal enough.

  

• In 2017, while the FBI was investigating whether Trump or his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Pirro called for the arrest of several top officials in the FBI and the Justice Department. She claimed they were biased against Trump and said the agencies needed to be “cleansed” of those working against him.

• In July 2018, when Trump was criticised for not confronting Vladimir Putin about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Jeanine Pirro defended Trump by sarcastically asking what people expected him to do, saying,
  

  What was he supposed to do, take a gun out and shoot Putin?”

• In 2018, Pirro published ‘Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy,’ focusing on Donald Trump’s presidency and his opponents. Trump even posed with her and the book in the Oval Office.

  

• Pirro has often appeared on shows like ‘The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.’ She has also served as a guest analyst on shows like Fox 5’s ‘Good Day New York.’

• Pirro often appears as a legal analyst on Fox News. She has also guest-hosted shows like CNN’s Larry King Live, Current TV’s The Joy Behar Show, and Fox News’ Geraldo at Large.

• In 2019, Jeanine became a board member of Heavenly Rx, a company making wellness products using CBD (cannabidiol), a compound derived from cannabis. Pirro was sceptical at first, but she changed her mind after learning how much it helped others.

• On 24 January 2022, Jeanine Pirro began as a permanent co-host on Fox News’ The Five, which brought an end to her long-running weekend show, Justice with Judge Jeanine.

  

• In May 2025, President Trump appointed Jeanine Pirro as the Acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, succeeding Ed Martin.