President Trump issued a final pardon before his presidency ended—and it wasn't for himself, a family member, or Joe Exotic. In a statement issued less than an hour before President Biden was sworn in, when Trump had already landed in Florida en route to Mar-a-Lago, the White House announced that a full pardon had been granted to Albert Pirro, ex-husband of Fox host Jeanine Pirro, ABC reports. In 2000, Albert Pirro was sentenced to 29 months in prison on conspiracy and tax evasion charges. Prosecutors said he improperly deducted $1.2 million in personal expenses as a business tax write-off.
Sources tell CNN that Jeanine Pirro—who supported Trump's false election fraud claims on her Justice With Judge Jeanine show—lobbied Trump for a pardon after her ex-husband wasn't included on the list of 143 pardons and commutations released early Wednesday. The sources say White House aides were surprised by the last-minute order and had to scramble to make the pardon happen before noon. Jeanine Pirro has been one of Trump's staunchest allies on Fox, and this isn't the first favor he's done for her: In 2019, when her show was suspended after remarks on Rep. Ilhan Omar's hijab, Trump urged Fox to bring her show back, blaming "Radical Left Democrats" and the "Fake News Media" for the suspension. (More Donald Trump stories.)
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