Inside the salacious scandal that derailed Jeanine Pirro's political career

Jeanine Pirro is the first U.S. attorney nominee known to have come under a federal probe after being caught on tape scheming to catch a cheating spouse in the act.

Long before she was a Fox News host who pushed pro-Trump election conspiracy theories, Jeanine Pirro was an ambitious New York politician whose career stalled after she was recorded plotting to bug her then-husband’s boat to catch him in an affair.

The revelation rocked Pirro’s campaign for New York attorney general nearly 20 years ago, resulting in days of front-page headlines in the city’s tabloids (“BUG THIS LOVE BOAT!” blared the Daily News cover).

The conversation took place in 2005 between Pirro and the former commissioner of the New York Police Department, Bernard Kerik, a close ally of Rudy Giuliani’s.

“What am I supposed to do, Bernie? Watch him f--- her every night?” Pirro said, according to a transcript obtained by WNBC-TV’s Jonathan Dienst in 2006. “What am I supposed to do? I can go on the boat. I’ll put the f-----g thing on myself.”

The incident is likely to receive renewed attention now that Pirro is President Donald Trump’s pick to be the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Her selection came after the president withdrew the nomination of conservative activist Ed Martin, whose defense of Jan. 6 rioters was criticized by some Republican senators.