President Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro “folded like an umbrella” when she moved to drop her case against a former Olympian charged with vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Pirro’s office, in a court filing Friday, said damage to the pool was the result of shoddy construction.
“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro — really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro,” Trump said of the former Fox News host whom he appointed as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in May 2025 before the Senate confirmed her permanent role last August.
Trump said Monday he has not spoken with Pirro since Friday, when government lawyers said the Reflecting Pool damage was the result of a botched installation by the contractor and “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”
Trump spent several minutes at an unrelated news conference in the Oval Office on Monday opining about the Reflecting Pool.
“I’m not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing,” Trump said. “We wanted to get it open for July Fourth, and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism.”
Trump said he did not know the contractor but thought the work was “perfect” when it was completed.
He then reiterated a claim he has repeatedly made since mid-June, when multiple online videos and media reports showed chunks of the pool’s new liner peeling.
“They took knives or cutters, and they cut the material. And they put their hands in, and they pulled it,” the president said, citing a video tape he posted on Truth Social as evidence of “people leaning over the side” of the pool and cutting the “weakest” part of the pool liner.
Trump admitted “the (video) tape isn’t a great tape” because “it’s a little hard to say who it exactly was, but it was people cutting this very expensive material.”
On July 2, Pirro announced her office had indicted Hearn for charges related to vandalizing the Reflecting Pool on June 19, saying: “Vandalism at treasured places like the Reflecting Pool is an affront to our shared history and the dignity of our national heritage.”
The indictment alleged Hearn, who competed in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics as a slalom canoeist for the U.S. team, had ripped a piece of the recently installed blue pool sealant on the bottom of the pool.
During a court hearing one week later, Hearn’s defense attorney entered a not guilty plea. Speaking with reporters outside the courthouse, the attorney described Hearn as a curious citizen who had touched a piece of liner that was already peeling — not a vandal.
On Friday, Pirro cited additional documents the Interior Department had provided in her filing asking the judge to formally dismiss the case against Hearn: “Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Pirro’s decision to drop the case is a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.
On Monday, Trump said the judge in the case “was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine. And frankly, I think she choked, because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked.”
Pirro’s office had not responded to Spectrum News’ request for comment about Trump’s statement before this story was published.
“We did a great job,” Trump said of the $14.65 million Reflecting Pool resurfacing and painting project, noting that the stone had been sand blasted to prolong its life, and that “very expensive material” was put on top of the stone surface to prevent it from leaking.
Trump said the Reflecting Pool, which is again being fixed, will be open in one or two weeks.