The top Senate Democrats on two committees that oversee the Interior Department have asked the agency’s inspector general to investigate whether Interior officials wrongly concealed information about President Donald Trump’s troubled renovation of the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool.
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The Interior Department had publicly blamed damage to the pool’s new liner on “vandals,” a claim echoed by Trump and prosecutors who pressed charges against several people. The Justice Department on Friday said that Interior officials did not share relevant internal information that indicated the problems were due to contractors’ mistakes and has dropped the cases.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) and Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), the top Democrats on the Environment and Public Works and the Energy and Natural Resources committees, respectively, called Tuesday for an “immediate investigation” into whether Interior officials misled the president and others about the source of the damage.
“Numerous questions remain: How was the vandalism lie cooked up? How did it get to President Trump’s desk? Or did it originate from the White House?” Whitehouse and Heinrich wrote to the inspector general’s office. A copy of the letter was provided to The Washington Post.
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A spokesman for the inspector general declined to comment on the letter. The inspector general, which is intended to be an independent watchdog of the agency’s actions, is not bound to open an investigation.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Trump have continued to publicly claim vandals damaged the pool. Trump also has criticized longtime ally Jeanine Pirro, the top U.S. attorney for the nation’s capital, for dropping the cases.
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