Trump lashes into Jeanine Pirro saying she ‘choked’ on reflecting pool ‘vandalism’ and ‘folded like an umbrella’
Trump lashes into Jeanine Pirro saying she ‘choked’ on reflecting pool ‘vandalism’ and ‘folded like an umbrella’
Alex WoodwardMon, August 3, 2026 at 6:59 PM UTC
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Donald Trump unloaded on the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, after she moved to drop charges against a former Olympian who the president accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool despite his administration failing to produce evidence against him.
“I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” he said Monday from the Oval Office. “She folded like an umbrella.”
The president said she “choked” and blamed the judge overseeing the case.
“I think she choked, because the judge was really vicious,” he said. “Instead of going after the people who did it, he went after her, and went after her department, and I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”
Pirro filed a motion to dismiss criminal charges against David Hearn on Friday after the Trump administration admitted that damage to the landmark’s recently installed blue liner was “the result of flawed installation by the contractor.”
Donald Trump unloaded on US Attorney for Washington DC Jeanine Pirro in front of reporters inside the Oval Office on August 3 after her office moved to drop charges against a man accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool despite no evidence supporting the claims (Getty)
The president is reportedly furious with Pirro and mulling whether to fire her from the Department of Justice, according to CNN.
Asked by reporters whether he will reconsider her role as U.S. Attorney in D.C, Trump told a journalist, “you’re fake news” and “don’t ever talk again.”
Hearn, a 67-year-old canoeist who participated in three Olympic Games, pleaded not guilty to one felony count of destruction of property earlier this month.
Pirro had previously lambasted Hearn in a press conference on July 2, claiming he “woefully destroyed property” in a “deliberate act” to damage the monument by “forcefully and violently” pulling the pool’s lining.
Friday’s court filing, however, states that the recently applied blue sealant at the bottom of the pool started to peel “almost immediately” after the work was completed following renovations to the site last month.
The Department of Interior “provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case,” according to the filing from Pirro’s office.
It was not until after the indictment was filed that the agency determined that the “damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism,” the filing states.
“The Trump administration's case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” according to a statement to The Independent from Hearn’s counsel Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund, Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP.
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Pirro’s efforts to dismiss the case don’t “erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong,” they said. “The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”
Pirro had previously claimed David Hearn ‘forcefully and violently’ pulled at the pool’s lining, but new court filings reveal the damage was most likely the result of a ‘rushed and botched installation’ (Getty)
The shallow pool, which the president repeatedly promotes as “bigger than skyscrapers,” was refurbished with a shade of dark blue and outfitted with “advanced nanobubbler technology” to tackle algae blooms that have long plagued the landmark.
Algae returned shortly after the renovations were complete, and the new sealant started to peel off in chunks that bubbled to the surface.
Trump initially said a refurbishing project for the 2,030-foot pool could be done quickly for $1.5 million in time for White House-backed Fourth of July celebrations.
His administration has now spent nearly $14.7 million, with all funds directed to Atlantic Industrial Coatings LLC, Virginia, according to federal spending records. The administration bypassed a typical competitive bid process and gave the company a no-bid contract by arguing that the need for renovations was so urgent that any delays would cause “serious injury” to the government, though it remains unclear what that “injury” entails.
Trump continues to baselessly insist that vandals were responsible for cutting the recently applied lining of the Reflecting Pool despite his own administration appearing to admit that there is no evidence to support his claims (AFP/Getty)
Trump has spent weeks insisting that vandals used box cutters to damage the lining, which was peeling off in chips that bubbled to the surface days after the pool was refilled.
But evidence “strongly suggests that a rushed and botched installation” by Atlantic Industrial Coatings “led to the damage to the lining of the Reflecting Pool,” according to Pirro’s latest filing.
The Trump administration “slowly started trickling information” to her office after investigators tried to reach out “dozens and dozens of times,” the filing states.
Had the Interior Department “been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,” Pirro’s office wrote.
The administration’s documents “reveal that work on installing the lining almost immediately fell behind, due to a combination of very rainy and windy weather, repeated failures of testing on the sealing of the expansion joints, and delays in obtaining sealing product at the work site,” she wrote.
“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” Pirro added.
There also is similar damage in the middle of the pool, which would not likely be the work of an alleged vandal, the filing notes.
“Jeanine Pirro made a mistake. It was vandalism,” Trump said Monday. “We have photographs or tapes, like moving cameras, right? Where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife. Now, I’m not saying I was 100 percent thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and we got it done. But, in addition, there was vandalism.”
Source: “AOL Breaking”
