A trove of new court documents has revealed an inner rift between Jeanine Pirro and another Fox host during her time on the network.
The documents, obtained by The Washington Post and released Tuesday, show text messages sent by the former Fox News host and current United States Attorney for the District of Columbia that characterize Sean Hannity as an “egomaniac.”
Describing a meeting with Trump and Hannity in the Oval Office, Pirro wrote in an Oct. 27, 2020, text that Hannity stormed in “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. Looks at me and says, I got to talk to him.”
Pirro added, “It’s all abt him, period. No one else matters.”
Pirro left Fox News in May to take up her new role in the Trump administration.
District of Columbia. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The documents, made public as part of voting technology company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, also allege that Pirro was committed to supporting President Donald Trump in contravention of the network’s policies regarding on-air personalities and political involvement.
Pirro told the then-chairman of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel in a September, 2020, text, “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.”
Smartmatic was the subject of claims of voter fraud following the 2020 election by those in President Donald Trump’s inner circle, including Rudy Giuliani. Fox News hosts, including Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, spoke about the claims on air, and were subsequently named in Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News.
Fox, which sought to be dismissed from the lawsuit earlier this year, filed its own motion for summary judgement and has denied that it defamed Smartmatic. It also asserts that its hosts were covering, but not endorsing, claims of election fraud made by Trump’s allies. Pirro was dismissed from the lawsuit in 2021, and acknowledged in a deposition that the 2020 election was “fair and free” and Biden was legitimately elected.
Despite the 74-year-old’s removal from the suit, Smartmatic included conversations between Fox employees, including Pirro, in its filing in order to solidify its claim that hosts were motivated to stay on Trump’s good side.
The company argued that Pirro sought to curry favor with Trump in order to secure a pardon for her ex-husband, Albert Pirro. Pirro was the last person Trump pardoned during his first term in office.
Other messages show Pirro decrying censorship at Fox after one episode of her show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, did not air after she was warned by a producer to avoid making further claims of election fraud. In a message to Hannity, Pirro wrote, “I’M TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP AND I’M EMBARRASSED BY HOW THEY CALLED THIS ELECTION.”
Pirro later told Hannity she had made several demands of management after the episode was scrapped, to which he responded, “Fox News promoting u every 5 seconds. It’s hilarious,” suggesting the network was doing so in an attempt to butter her up and mend their relationship.
The court documents reveal that shortly after the results of the 2020 election were announced, Maria Bartiromo texted Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, and said, “I want you to overturn this.” She would go on to allow claims of voter fraud to air unchallenged.
Bartiromo said of her coverage, according to the documents, “I think Fox did an excellent job of reporting on what was going on at the time,” adding, “I am certainly very proud of my work.”
Anchor Bret Baier had warned a Fox executive about Bartiromo’s coverage at the time, telling Jay Wallace, “None of this is true as far as we can tell. We need to fact-check this crap.”
Jesse Watters, meanwhile, attempted to play both sides, testifying that he saw no evidence of voter fraud using Smartmatic’s technology but telling Greg Gutfeld in a December 2020 message, “Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Fox News said of the lawsuit, “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.
”Now, in the aftermath of Smartmatic’s executives getting indicted for bribery charges, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms.”
An email sent by The Washington Post to Pirro’s office seeking comment was not returned.
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