Top D.C. prosecutor Jeanine Pirro was allegedly badmouthing Pam Bondi behind her back as part of a desperate bid to replace her as attorney general, according to a report.
Details of the former Fox News host’s career ambitions were laid out in a lengthy profile in New York magazine, published online the morning after Donald Trump abruptly fired Bondi as Justice Department chief.
Sources told the outlet that “Judge Jeanine” left her nearly $3 million-a-year job at Fox News for a $200,000 salary as a federal prosecutor because she was already thinking about moving up the chain.
“The judge is very close to the president, talks to him all the time,” a source told New York magazine. “And she’d been trying to put the knife in Bondi, saying she’s not a prosecutor and doesn’t have control of the building.”
Pirro denied that she wants to eventually become attorney general and insisted she left Fox News to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia so the former New York judge and district attorney could return to prosecuting.
“Everyone said to me, ‘I can’t believe you gave it up,’” Pirro said. “But what they don’t understand is that it wasn’t what I gave up; it was that I got to go back to who I was. I get to be Jeanine again.”
Trump fired Bondi on Thursday after reportedly growing irate that she had become the face of the botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, as well as the Justice Department’s failure to prosecute some of the president’s foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
The president has installed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former personal defense lawyer, as acting head of the DOJ.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Alina Habba, another of Trump’s former personal lawyers who was blocked from becoming New Jersey’s top prosecutor, are also said to be in the running to replace Bondi permanently.
Trump did not deny that he is also considering Pirro as Bondi’s replacement, telling New York magazine that they are both “great people.”
“Jeanine Pirro’s fantastic, but they’re both great people,” Trump added.
The magazine’s profile also notes that Pirro was eager to be named attorney general during Trump’s first term. When the position went to Jeff Sessions, she reportedly lobbied to become his deputy, but the Fox News host couldn’t “pass the laugh test” as a serious government official.
Pirro does appear ready to pass the loyalty test required to remain in Trump’s inner circle.
When asked whether she would prosecute the president if he shot someone “in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Pirro declined to answer on the advice of her media handler, who was present during the interview.
The Daily Beast has contacted Pirro’s office for comment.
