Trump issues last-minute pardon to ex-husband of Fox News' Jeanine Pirro

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 WKXA

JTSorrell/iStockBy LUCIEN BRUGGEMAN, ABC News

(WASHINGTON) — With less than an hour before his term ended, President Donald Trump on Wednesday granted one final pardon to Albert Pirro, a longtime New York businessman and the ex-husband of Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, one of Trump’s staunchest cable news supporters.

What was possibly Trump’s final act as president reflected a recurring theme in his final months in office: delivering clemencies to scores of personal friends and political allies.

The decision to pardon Pirro came less than 12 hours after what was thought to be a final batch of 143 pardons and commutations — a list that included Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist.

Pirro, 73, was convicted nearly two decades ago on 34 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion after he was found to have improperly deducted over $1 million in lavish personal expenses as a tax write-off for his business.

The New York Times reported after his trial that prosecutors characterized Pirro’s lust for money as being comparable to Richard Nixon’s lust for power.

For Trump, Pirro’s pardon was the last entry on a list of supporters who benefitted from the sweeping presidential clemency powers.

Campaign finance records show Pirro donated roughly $2,000 to the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign in 2020.

Jeanine Pirro, whose Saturday evening broadcast has become a venue for Trump loyalists to promulgate debunked election fraud conspiracies, earned frequent shout-outs on Trump’s now-inactive Twitter page.