Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, met with US President on Monday (local time) at the White House, days after Trump said that she “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” in dropping charges last week against those charged with damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The meeting between Pirro and Trump came amid questions over her future in the position, ABC News reported, citing sources. While the White House did not respond to questions about the meeting, an official, when asked about Pirro’s future in the role, referred to comments Trump made earlier in the Oval Office criticising her decision to drop the case.
According to sources, the has privately discussed with aides whether he should fire Pirro, while cautioning that nothing on the matter is final until Trump says it.
Trump ‘disappointed’ with Pirro: Here’s why
Speaking at an Oval Office event earlier on Monday, said he was “very disappointed” by Pirro’s decision to drop the felony indictment against three-time Olympian canoeist David Hearn. In a 20-page court filing, Pirro said the damage was the result of “flawed installation by the contractor” rather than vandalism, contradicting claims she and the US President had previously made.
Pirro’s office drops more Reflecting Pool charges
CBS News reported on Monday that, amid the internal disagreements within the Trump administration over the decision to seek the dismissal of a felony charge against Hearn, prosecutors in Washington moved to drop charges against three other defendants facing similar allegations.
While withdrawing the case, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia said that new information suggested it was “difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism.” She cited internal National Park Service communication from June 11 that raised concerns over the peeling pool liner more than a week before the Olympian was arrested. Separately, misdemeanour charges against three others were also dropped in connection with the damage to the pool.
Trump’s criticism and shifting remarks
However, despite Pirro’s filing, Trump continued to allege that the damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by vandals cutting and tearing the pool lining and said she “made a mistake” and “choked” under pressure from the judge in the case. He later added that she “folded like an umbrella.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, he said, “The judge 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.”
Last week, in a Truth Social post, Trump, who has long insisted that vandals damaged the Reflecting Pool, rebuked Pirro’s decision to drop the case against Hearn, who said he only touched a piece of the liner that had peeled from the bottom and pleaded not guilty.
However, he later acknowledged that the project’s contractor might have had something to do with the damage, as they were rushed to finish the project before the Fourth of July.
He said, “So now I’m not saying I was 100% 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.”
The developments have intensified scrutiny over Pirro’s future as the Trump administration faces growing questions over its handling of the Reflecting Pool case.
