Did Fox host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro criticize President-elect Donald Trump over pardons? No, that's not true: An authentic video of Pirro was included in a social media post with photographs of Trump. In reality, Pirro was criticizing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden.
The claim appeared in a post and video on Threads on December 2, 2024, (archived here), that featured still images of Trump positioned next to authentic video footage of Pirro. A caption read:
damn judge jeanine went hard as hell on Trump
In the video, Pirro says:
... is a classic example of someone who is above the law because he was never even sentenced. Most of the pardons that we hear about are pardons where someone has served their time, they paid their debt to society, and they're going to end up, you know, getting it removed. It's an impediment going forward. Not this case. We won't even know what he's being, what his sentence would have been. And then for him to call out the media and select a prosecution is absurd. A jury found him guilty. Are you saying that you don't believe in the jury system anymore, Mr. President?
This is how the video looked on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken Wed Dec 4 11:23:07 2024 UTC)
While the video of Pirro is authentic, her critiques were directed at President Biden's pardon for his son Hunter on December 1, 2024.
In the edited version on Threads, the juxtaposition of photos of Trump next to the video of Pirro implies she was criticizing Trump over his pardon policies and decisions.
Fox News posted the original clip of Pirro to the channel's YouTube account on December 2, 2024, under the title, "Judge Jeanine: Hunter's pardon shows the Bidens are afraid of something."
The unedited version, shown in the screenshot below, included still images of Joe and Hunter Biden -- not Trump.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken Wed Dec 4 18:43:21 2024 UTC)
The clip on Threads cuts the beginning of Pirro's statement in which she clearly says at the 3:53-minute mark, "Hunter Biden is a classic example ..."
Lead Stories has debunked other claims involving Hunter Biden, which can be read here.
