"It's time to take them out in cuffs”: Fox News' Jeanine Pirro calls for a purge of the FBI

Conservatives are now attacking the FBI and DOJ to protect Trump

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published December 10, 2017 1:31PM (EST)

Jeanine Pirro      (Fox News)
Jeanine Pirro (Fox News)

2017 has certainly felt like the upside-down of 2016; a somehow more confusing and disconcerting reality that feels all too surreal.  Remember back in 2016 when Fox News hosts would constantly accuse President Barack Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement of endangering lives by criticizing police brutality? Somehow, criticizing law enforcement is all the rage for conservative pundits seeking to defend President Donald Trump in 2017.

Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro called for the “cleansing” of law enforcement officials who are investigating the president on her show Saturday night. She said the FBI and Justice Department have too many "political hacks" embedded and called on a whole bunch of federal law enforcement officials to be arrested.

"There have been times in our history where corruption and lawlessness were so pervasive that examples had to be made. This is one of those times," she said. "I for one am tired of investigations, politicians posturing. Something more has to be done."

Pirro singled out Special Counsel Robert Mueller,  former FBI Director James Comey, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI official Peter Strzok. Fox News opinion hosts have been using the discovery of “anti-Trump text messages” from Strzok as an excuse to undermine the entire Mueller investigation as corrupt.

“The stench coming out of the Justice Department and the FBI is like that of a third-world country where money and bullies and clubs decide election,” she said. “It all started with cardinal [James] Comey destroyed our FBI with political hacks to set events in motion to destroy the republic because they did not like the man we chose to be our president.”

Pirro called Comey a “political whore” during her show last week.

She continued on Saturday: “There is a cleansing needed in our FBI and Department of Justice — it needs to be cleansed of individuals who should not just be fired, but who need to be taken out in cuffs!”

"Handcuffs for Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI. The man at the hub, protecting Hillary and attempting to destroy Trump."

Pirro is a longtime friend of Trump, but a recent New York Times’ report indicates that her hyperbolic rants get to be too much even for him. "Even Mr. Trump eventually tired of Ms. Pirro’s screed and walked out of the room," the Times reported. 

Her over-the-top language on Saturday, however, was right in line with the ridiculous attacks against law enforcement emanating from Fox News all week, following Trump’s comments that the FBI is “in tatters.” For seven minutes, Pirro sat before the Fox News cameras and actively sowed distrust of federal investigators so that in the event Trump fires Mueller people will think he's doing the right thing.

Pirro, a former district attorney, has had her own recent run-ins with the law.

Last month, the Fox News host was ticketed for driving 54 miles over the speed limit in upstate New York.

In 2006, during her run for state attorney general, Pirro, came under federal investigation for an alleged plan to bug her husband's boat. Pirro was caught discussing wiretapping her alleged mobster ex-husband with Bernard Kerik, the indicted former New York City Police Commissioner.


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Department Of Justice Doj Donald Trump Fbi Federal Law Enforcement Fox News Gop Hypocrisy Robert Mueller