Reports circulated last week that President Donald Trump was extremely unhappy with U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro after she decided to drop a case against a man accused of feloniously damaging the newly refurbished Reflecting Pool.
The reports left many speculating that the president was angry enough to dismiss her from her post.
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Now, nearly a week later, it appears that Trump has made up his mind.
Trump said he does not plan to remove Washington’s top federal prosecutor after her office dismissed charges against a former Olympic paddler last week, though he criticized the decision and continued to assert that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had been vandalized.
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In a Thursday phone interview with NBC News, Trump said Pirro, the former Fox News host, New York prosecutor and judge, “made a big mistake” by seeking dismissal of the case against David Hearn.
Hearn, a former Olympic paddler, had faced charges that carried a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years after allegedly ripping up a section of the Reflecting Pool’s liner that had become detached.
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“She said there was no vandalism. There was tremendous vandalism,” he said.
“So, she made a terrible mistake. I don’t understand why she did such a stupid thing,” the president added.
A reporter pressed the president further, asking if he planned to fire Pirro.
“I think she made a terrible decision. That doesn’t mean change,” Trump said.
The president continued to maintain that the century-old Reflecting Pool had been vandalized, despite court filings from Pirro stating that the damage resulted from a faulty installation rather than intentional misconduct.
In court documents, Pirro’s office said the detached liner had been installed by a contractor selected during the restoration project and concluded that the damage “was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism.”
Her motion to the court blamed “contractor error” and added that it would be “difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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Pirro had previously lambasted Hearn, claiming he “woefully destroyed property” in a “deliberate act” to damage the monument by “forcefully and violently” pulling the pool’s lining.
Pirro also asserted that the Department of the Interior provided her office with “less the fulsome information” about the case, an issue that reportedly contributed to a confrontation in the Oval Office last week.
The Reflecting Pool recently underwent a renovation that included the installation of a dark-blue liner and an advanced nanobubbler system designed to reduce algae growth, a longstanding maintenance challenge at the historic site.
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Algae reportedly reappeared soon after the renovation was completed, and sections of the new protective sealant began peeling away and surfacing in the water.
Trump initially said the refurbishment of the 2,030-foot Reflecting Pool could be completed quickly for approximately $1.5 million in time for Fourth of July events.
According to federal spending records, the project has since cost nearly $14.7 million, with payments going to Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC of Virginia.
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Hearn’s attorneys have asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, which would prevent prosecutors from refiling the charges.
They argue that the government’s own court filings concluded the damage resulted from installation problems rather than vandalism and cite Trump’s continued public statements asserting otherwise.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
