{"id":8700,"date":"2026-08-05T18:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8700"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:37:16","slug":"democrats-ask-interior-watchdog-to-investigate-response-to-reflecting-pool-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8700","title":{"rendered":"Democrats ask Interior watchdog to investigate response to Reflecting Pool damage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) is one of the Democrats asking the Interior Department\u2019s watchdog to investigate whether information was wrongly concealed about the Reflecting Pool’s damage. (Elizabeth Frantz\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The top Senate Democrats on two committees that oversee the Interior Department have asked the agency\u2019s inspector general to investigate whether Interior officials wrongly concealed information about President Donald Trump\u2019s troubled renovation<\/a> of the Lincoln Memorial\u2019s reflecting pool.<\/p>

Read more Democrats turn out big in Michigan gubernatorial primary<\/a><\/p>\n

The Interior Department had publicly blamed damage to the pool\u2019s new liner on \u201cvandals,\u201d 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\u2019 mistakes<\/a> and has dropped the cases.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cimmediate investigation\u201d into whether Interior officials misled the president and others about the source of the damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumerous questions remain: How was the vandalism lie cooked up? How did it get to President Trump\u2019s desk? Or did it originate from the White House?\u201d Whitehouse and Heinrich wrote to the inspector general\u2019s office. A copy of the letter<\/a> was provided to The Washington Post.<\/p>

Read more How El-Sayed won the contentious Michigan Senate Democratic primary<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019s actions, is not bound to open an investigation.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s capital, for dropping the cases.<\/p>\n

Catch up quickly every weekday morning with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories. <\/i>Sign up for The 7 newsletter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>

Read more Trump-endorsed candidate loses to Michigan man who dropped out of race<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sens. Whitehouse and Heinrich say the inspector general must probe the agency\u2019s internal documents after Justice Department officials said Interior concealed information about damage to the pool\u2019s renovations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocrats ask Interior watchdog to investigate response to Reflecting Pool damage - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8700\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Democrats ask Interior watchdog to investigate response to Reflecting Pool damage - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sens. 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