U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro once labelled her fellow Fox News anchor Sean Hannity an “egomaniac” and bragged about helping President Donald Trump, according to newly-released bombshell text messages.
Pirro is at the center of a lawsuit brought by the voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic against Fox, in which the former is seeking $2.7 billion in damages for what it alleges do the network’s anchors spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories about its products in the aftermath of Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Fox settled a similar defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 for $787.5 million but has insisted that Smartmatic’s suit is without merit.
“The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on Fox News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech,” the network said in a statement.
“Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms.”
The texts gathered by the company concerning Pirro were released as part of an unredacted court filing on Tuesday and paint a fascinating picture of life behind the scenes at Fox.
In one message sent by Pirro in September 2020 to Ronna McDaniel, the then-chair of the Republican National Committee, she bragged, “I work so hard for the party across the country. I’m the Number 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and party.”
In another message on October 27, she told a friend that Hannity had stormed into the Oval Office of the White House “like he owns the place, throws his papers on the Pres desk and says, you don’t mind if I use your private bathroom, and walks into bathroom within Oval and uses it.”
She continued: “[He] Looks at me and says, I got to talk to him… It’s all abt him, period. No one else matters.”
Smartmatic also argues in its suit that Pirro served as an information conduit to Sidney Powell, the self-styled “Kraken” attorney at the forefront of claims that Biden’s victory at the polls was achieved by fraud, citing a message in which she encourages the lawyer to “keep fighting.”
The texts further reveal that Jerry Andrews, the producer of Pirro’s show Justice with Judge Jeanine, warned her against making false claims about the election on air.
“You should be very careful with this stuff and protect yourself given the ongoing calls for evidence that has not materialized,” he told her.
Pirro was then angered when Fox decided against running an episode on November 7 and wrote to Hannity: “I’M TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP AND I’M EMBARRASSED BY HOW THEY CALLED THIS ELECTION.”
Hannity replied by observing: “Fox News promoting u every 5 seconds. It’s hilarious.”
According to Smartmatic, Pirro otherwise acknowledged in a deposition that the 2020 election was not stolen, agreed that it had been “fair and free” and that the company did nothing wrong.
“I believe that there’s been no showing that Smartmatic engaged in any problems,” she said, according to the filing, which also quoted her as answering “I do” when asked by the company’s lawyers whether she believed Biden was “legitimately elected.”
Elsewhere, Pirro is seen complaining to the president’s son Eric Trump that her ex-husband, Albert Pirro, was not initially granted a pardon by Trump over his tax evasion conviction and calling former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was granted clemency, “a selfish bastard,” writing to Kerik’s girlfriend: “I DON’T CARE [ABOUT] ANYONE ELSE.”
Other Fox anchors mentioned in the suit include Jesse Watters, who texted his fellow presenter Greg Gutfeld in December 2020: “Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL.”
More cautious was Bret Baier, who, according to the filing, messaged executive Jay Wallace accusing Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business of airing falsehoods and declaring: “None of that is true as far as we can tell. We need to fact-check this crap.”
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