Jeanine Ferris Pirro[2] (born June 2, 1951)[3] is an American television host and author, and is also a former judge, prosecutor, and politician in the state of New York.

[6][7][8] Jeanine Ferris was born and raised in Elmira, New York, the daughter of Lebanese-American parents[9][2] Her father was a mobile-home salesman, and her mother was a department-store model who spent much of her childhood in Beirut.

In 1977, Pirro approached Vergari and requested that he apply for a federal grant for local district attorney's offices to establish bureaus that specialized in domestic violence.

[13] While recognized for her prosecution of domestic violence, Pirro was criticized for her relative prosecutorial absence in bringing charges involving major public corruption or organized crime.

[18] These criticisms intensified when Pirro's husband was later convicted of several felonies tied to organized crime, including tax evasion and conspiracy.

Pirro, already known as a passionate prosecutor of domestic violence cases, was a frequent presence in the media during the period between the murder and when Scott Douglas's body washed ashore in Riverdale in early March 1994.

This increase in Pirro's national profile led to her surfacing as a frequent contributor on network and cable television news in June 1994, when O.J.

[17][24] Within months of taking office, Pirro undertook a costly renovation to the district attorney's facilities and expanded to an additional floor of the county courthouse.

The largest expenses were a new kitchenette and a media room, costing $20,000, to assist Pirro's growing profile; additional expenditures were made to remodel her personal office with mahogany.

Also while district attorney, she was appointed by then-Governor George Pataki to chair the New York State Commission on Domestic Violence Fatalities.

[27][better source needed] During her tenure as district attorney, she repeatedly refused to reopen the case of the murder of Angela Correa by Jeffrey Deskovic.

[28] In 1990, Deskovic was falsely convicted of killing the then-15-year-old Correa, and spent 16 years in prison before he was exonerated by DNA evidence; the real killer eventually confessed to the crime.

[29] On May 26, 1986, Pirro, then an assistant district attorney, was announced as the running mate of Westchester County Executive and presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee Andrew O'Rourke.

Pirro was selected by O'Rourke and New York State Republican Committee Chairman Anthony J. Colavita after nearly a dozen individuals declined the position.

[30] Assembly Minority Leader Clarence D. Rappleyea Jr. traveled to the first night of the Republican Committee's nominating convention in Syracuse to tell O'Rourke and Colavita that his conference was concerned about the selection of Pirro.

[31] On August 10, 2005, Pirro announced that she would seek the Republican nomination to challenge first-term incumbent senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, in the 2006 election for U.S.

Donors to Pirro's political campaign included designer Tommy Hilfiger (also a native of Elmira) and Donald Trump, as well as contractors and real estate executives who had done business with her husband.

[41][42] On May 31, 2006, Pirro was unopposed for the nomination and became the Republican Party's official candidate for Attorney General of New York by acclamation at the state GOP convention.

Pirro lost the general election to the Democratic nominee, former Clinton Housing and Urban Development Secretary and future Governor Andrew Cuomo, 58%–39%.

In April 2018, Trump posed with Pirro and with her book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy in the Oval Office.

[49] Pirro's Radicals, Resistance, and Revenge: The Left's Plot to Remake America (2019) is described as "the latest chapter in the unfolding liberal attack on our most basic values."

[45] Pirro appeared in the HBO six-part serial The Jinx, recounting her perspective on the 1983 disappearance of Kathie Durst, a high-profile case for which she was the investigating attorney.

"[71][72] According to Politico, "From the outset of the administration, she has used her TV platform to hammer the president's critics and to ding his allies, including Sessions, as insufficiently loyal.

"[73] In 2017, Pirro called for the arrest of individuals who cooperated with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election in favor of Trump.

[74][75] Pirro called for government agencies to be "cleansed" of critics of the president; she called for Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok to be arrested, and appeared to suggest that Mueller, former FBI director James B. Comey, and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr all be arrested as well.

[82] Describing her own political positions in 2005, Pirro said, "I'm Republican red on fiscal policy with conservative beliefs on making tax cuts permanent, but I've got broad blue stripes on the social issues," during her campaign for the US Senate in New York.

[86][87] On the topic of LGBT rights, Pirro actively supported the passing of a New York hate crimes law which covered sexual orientation as a protected class in 2000.

[13] Later in their marriage, but before their children were born, Albert was accused of fathering a daughter by a Florida woman he termed as extortionate and mentally unstable.

[18] After his denials and extensive court proceedings, DNA testing confirmed him as the father, and he was ordered to begin child support payments in 1998.

[114] Smartmatic claims that Fox News Network, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were primary sources of false information which were repeated by other media outlets, journalists, bloggers and influencers the world over.