"What was done to me in 2006 was wrong, and what happened to Hillary Clinton [Friday], was equally wrong," Pirro said. | AP Photo Jeanine Pirro defends Clinton on FBI review announcement

One of Hillary Clinton's harsher critics, Fox News' Jeanine Pirro, came to her defense Saturday.

In an opening statement on her show "Justice with Judge Jeanine," Pirro said the announcement Friday by FBI Director James Comey that the bureau will review newly found emails in connection with Clinton's private email server "disgraces and politicizes the FBI and is symptomatic of all that is wrong in Washington."


"Comey's actions violate not only long-standing Justice Department policy, the directive of the person that he works under, the attorney general," she said. "But even more important, the most fundamental rules of fairness and impartiality."

Pirro also related Clinton's situation to one in which the former prosecutor became involved in 2006.

When she was running for New York attorney general, Pirro said the Justice Department and the FBI announced to the media that they were opening an investigation of her. She said it was "mean-spirited and, of course, nothing came of it, except the adverse publicity cost me at the polls."

"What was done to me in 2006 was wrong, and what happened to Hillary Clinton [Friday], was equally wrong," Pirro said. "Now, this nation has already gone through an exhausting and traumatic campaign season. The FBI director should not now be front and center."



Pirro served as a county court judge — the first female judge elected in Westchester County — and county district attorney. The Republican candidate was defeated in the 2006 New York state attorney general election by Democrat Andrew Cuomo, 58 percent to 39 percent. Throughout the 2016 campaign season, she has been a frequent critic of the Clintons.