Jeanine Pirro Intensifies Efforts to Remove CPB Board Member

Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host and now U.S. Attorney, has requested a federal judge to affirm that President Donald Trump lawfully dismissed a member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) board. She argues she should be “removed and barred” from a position and insists that any backup plan to keep her in the role should be invalidated.

In mid-July, Pirro initiated a quo warranto proceeding, which is a legal action questioning someone’s legitimacy to hold a public or corporate position. She filed the case against CPB board members Diane Kaplan, Laura G. Ross, and Thomas E. Rothman, accusing them of “illegally occupying their prior roles” despite Trump’s dismissals in April. Subsequently, the DOJ dropped its claims against Rothman and Ross after they declared to CPB CEO Patricia Harrison that they were no longer holding or performing duties as Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, leaving Kaplan as the sole defendant.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia argued that “regardless of the reasoning—be it executive removal precedents or D.C. corporate law—the President possessed the authority to remove the Defendant at his discretion.” They urged, “The Court should grant summary judgment in favor of the United States and formally remove the Defendant from her illegitimately held office.”

Pirro claims Kaplan should not only be ousted based on the initial lawsuit’s rationale but also because evidence suggests she’s been attempting to retain her position via a fallback mechanism developed by CPB amid ongoing CPB legal proceedings.

According to court filings, “On August 26, 2025, the Defendant asserted for the first time that as an alternative to serving as a Board member, she had been appointed by CPB’s Chief Executive Officer to ‘a contingent designated body’ under Article V of CPB’s Bylaws.” Documents submitted reveal that “Later that day, the Defendant’s attorney provided a document to the United States’ counsel claiming to confirm the appointment, labeled as Exhibit 1. The document was dated June 8, 2025, and reportedly e-signed by Ms. Harrison on June 9, 2025.”

“It purports to ‘appoint a contingent Designated Body . . . in the event CPB’s position [in CPB v. Trump] is not sustained.’ It states that Mr. Rothman, Ms. Kaplan, and Ms. Ross will serve on the Designated Body alongside” Chair Ruby Calvert and board member Liz Sembler, the government went on.

The attached court exhibit shows that Harrison in June invoked CPB bylaws to “appoint a Designated Body to act as a Board when the number of directors purports to fall below the statutorily required number” of three amid litigation and uncertainty over the efficacy and lawfulness of the Trump firings.

Court exhibit shows CPB CEO Patricia Harrison appointing ‘Designated Body.’

Pirro stated that this backup or contingency plan could provide a way for Kaplan, if she is not still actually a board member, to stay on as a member of the “contingent designated body” until Trump nominates and the U.S. Senate confirms her replacement.

“[T]here are practical differences between service as a Board member and service on a designated body as a former Board member. Most important, service on a designated body is inherently temporary. If this Court rules that Defendant has been removed as a Board member but continues to serve on a designated body, the President can nominate Defendant’s replacement, subject to Senate confirmation,” the filing said, adding: “Thus, if the President appoints and the Senate confirms a third Board member, any purported service on a designated body by Defendant would cease.”

“By contrast,” the DOJ continued, “Defendant’s primary contention in this case and in CPB v. Trump is that she has the right to serve on the Board until her term expires. Accordingly, an order affirming Defendant’s ouster from the Board would provide redress to the United States by confirming the government’s ability (through presidential appointment and Senate confirmation) to terminate any continued service by Defendant.”

In any event, logic determines that Kaplan can’t be “currently serving on a designated body,” said Pirro:

Defendant is not currently serving on a designated body, and it is uncertain whether she ever will. The appointment document purports to “appoint a contingent Designated Body . . . in the event CPB’s position [in CPB v. Trump] is not sustained,” an event that has not yet occurred. The President has the right to appoint new Board members (subject to Senate confirmation) at any time, and Defendant does not dispute that there are currently several vacancies on the Board. It is therefore uncertain whether there will be less than three Board members, a necessary condition for a designated body under the Bylaws, if and when the Court rules against the CPB in CPB v. Trump.

CPB v. Trump refers to the lawsuit CPB filed in April claiming that Trump had “no power to remove or terminate” Kaplan, Rothman and Ross in “one sweeping act of executive overreach.”

The suit sought a restraining order that was later treated as a preliminary injunction request, but a federal judge — not convinced at that stage that Trump lacked authority to remove the board members — ruled in June that the plaintiffs “failed to carry their burden of demonstrating that they are likely to prevail on the merits of their claim for injunctive relief or that Plaintiffs are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief.”

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss reasoned at the time that although “Congress made clear that it intended that the Board of Directors perform its duties outside the government and without government or political influence,” the board could still function with two members and “important questions regarding the status of the Corporation and its relationship with the federal government” would have to be answered “another day.”

Pirro most recently sought summary judgment in the case, from which Rothman and Ross have also been dismissed.

CPB, a private nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 to promote the “growth and development” of public broadcasting across the country, currently lists Kaplan as an active board member along with Calvert and Sembler on its website; Rothman and Ross are listed as former board members.

While Kaplan and Rothman were appointed by then-President Joe Biden, Ross was appointed by Trump during his first term and then again by Biden. All three were confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires; there are nine board members in total at a full-staff level, and “no more than 5 members of the Board appointed by the President may be members of the same political party.”

Read the government’s filing here.