The president acknowledged “there may have been some contractor difficulty” but said he disagreed with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for dropping a criminal charge against a former Olympian.
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President Donald Trump blasted U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Saturday for moving to drop a criminal charge filed against a former Olympian who had been accused of vandalizing the lining of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool.
Trump doubled down on claims that the renovated pool had been vandalized, even as federal prosecutors suggested the damage was instead due to “botched” contractor work.
“I don’t know what she was thinking?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”
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“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” the president wrote.
David Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, was arrested in June and accused of pulling up a piece of the pool’s lining. According to Friday’s filing in D.C. Superior Court, internal Interior Department documents chalked up the peeling of the pool liner to contractor errors made during the hurried effort to overhaul the pool ahead of celebrations to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s statements. She had previously echoed Trump’s claims, saying last month she had “tremendous evidence” that Hearn had committed a felony.
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