Teresa Giudice is holding out hope that President Donald Trump will pardon husband Joe Giudice to prevent his court-ordered deportation to his home country of Italy.
Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, the 46-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star, who knows Trump personally from her 2012 appearance on his series Celebrity Apprentice, discussed the possibility of Trump stepping in and aiding in appealing the court’s decision.
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“I would love to speak to him if he would like to call me,” she said, according to PEOPLE. “I haven’t, but I said, if he wants to speak to me, I would love it.”
Cohen, however, suggested that Giudice, who shares four children with Joe, may need to be the one to make the first move.
“I think he’s got other things to do. I think it would take you reaching out to him. Are you going to try?” he said.
“We’ll see what happens,” Giudice said. “I don’t have a relationship with Mr. Donald Trump in that way. I would take his call. If he would call me, of course I would take his call.”
Giudice and her husband were both convicted in 2014 for multiple counts of fraud-related charges, with Giudice sentenced to serve 15 months in prison – she was released in 2016 – and Joe sentenced to 41 months. On Oct. 10, an immigration court ruled that Joe would be deported back to Italy, where he emigrated from as a child, upon his release.
“They did make an example out of us. They said that, so they said they’re making examples,” Giudice told PEOPLE after news of Joe’s deportation broke. “I think the judge even said it when she was sentencing us. So they do that so everybody else kind of sees what happens to us, and then they’ll make sure that they don’t do it. But meanwhile, it’s like they target people that are on TV or that are … in the public eye. … But then I’m sure there’s so many people because they’re not in the public eye that are getting away with so much.”
Joe’s legal team is reportedly actively pursuing an appeal, which the judge gave him 30 days to do, though it is not known how long it will take before the appeal makes its way in front of a court.
Giudice and Joe, who married in 1999, share four daughters – Gia, 17, Gabriella, 14, Milania, 12, and Audriana, 9.
