Jeanine Pirro Net Worth: TV Host Sued By Black Lives Matter Activist

A Black Lives Matter activist sued Judge Jeanine Pirro on Tuesday for defaming him while discussing a lawsuit against the accuser on “Fox And Friends.”

The lawsuit in question was filed against activist DeRay Mckesson in 2016 by an anonymous policeman who was working at the scene where protestors took to the street over the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling, an African American man, on July 5, 2016. The police claimed he was hit in the face by a rock during the protest rally, thrown by a protestor who was incited by Mckesson, New York Daily News reported.

The policeman’s lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge Sept. 28 on the grounds that Black Lives Matter was a social movement that could not be sued and that the accuser failed to provide substantial evidence of how Mckesson allegedly incited the violence.

After the judge had tossed out the lawsuit, Pirro attacked Mckesson on her show. “In this particular case, Deray Mckesson, the organizer, actually was directing people, was directing the violence,” Pirro said on the show back in September. “You’ve got a police officer who was injured, he was injured at the direction of DeRay Mckesson, DeRay Mckesson walks away with a hundred thousand dollars, for an organization that is amorphous, we got a problem in this country.”

According to McKesson’s lawsuit, Pirro "made a series of outrageously false and defamatory statements about Mr. McKesson, including that he directed someone to hit the police officer in the face with a rock."

Although the lawsuit goes on to state that Pirro’s words hurt McKesson’s image and continue to endanger him, Fox News defended its host’s remarks in a statement. “We informed Mr. McKesson’s counsel that our commentary was fully protected under the First Amendment and the privilege for reports of judicial proceedings. We will defend this case vigorously,” the statement said.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Pirro has an estimated net worth of $12 million.

Pirro was born in Elmira, New York, and went on to graduate from the University of Buffalo. After that, she earned her law degree from Albany Law School and became Assistant District Attorney in Westchester County in 1978. She also became the first female to serve as a judge in Westchester County Court. In 1993, she became Westchester County's first female District Attorney.

Pirro became well-known as “Judge Jeanine” after she began appearing on her own show, "Judge Jeanine Pirro" on The CW in 2008. Despite winning the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Legal/Courtroom, the show was canceled in 2011. She currently hosts the show “Justice With Judge Jeanine” on Fox News — a show that she got the same year her old show ended.

Pirro had also sought the Republican nomination for United States Senate against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2006. Deciding that she had a better chance of scoring the position of New York Attorney General, Pirro dropped out of the senatorial race. However, she lost the race to Democratic candidate New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

It was revealed by The Observer in 2011 that President Donald Trump – then a business and reality TV mogul – donated $20,000 to Pirro’s failed campaign bid to become the attorney general in 2006. However, it is not clear as to whom Trump favored in the race since he had also donated the same amount of money to Pirro’s opponent, Cuomo later on.

In 1975, Pirro married her husband, Albert Pirro. In 2007, the couple announced that they were getting a divorced. They have two kids together - Christi Pirro and Alexander Pirro.

Pirro made headlines in November when she was handed a speeding ticket for driving 119 mph in a 65 mph zone in upstate New York.

Pirro said at the time that she did not realize that she was speeding. "I had been driving for hours to visit my ailing 89-year-old mom and didn’t realize how fast I was driving," she said. "I believe in the rule of law and I will pay the consequences."