Internal administration clash: Trump accuses Jeanine Pirro of being wrong to rule out vandalism at the Reflecting Pool

President Donald Trump publicly criticized the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, after she called for the dismissal of criminal charges against a former Olympic athlete accused of damaging the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, rejecting her conclusion that the damage was the result of construction defects rather than acts of vandalism. Another member of the Republican administration who lashed out at Pirro was Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who questioned the prosecutor's conclusions and stated that his department had provided prosecutors with "expert testimony and eyewitness accounts regarding the damage caused by vandals."

On Friday, Pirro's office asked a federal court to dismiss the case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who had been charged with deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool shortly after it was renovated in time for the nation's 250th. In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump acknowledged that "there may have been some issue with the contractor" during the installation of the pond's new lining, but maintained that the primary damage was the result of criminal acts. "I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool," Trump wrote, insisting that "the main damage was caused by VANDALS!"

For her part, Pirro wrote that "In light of all this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone prove that fact beyond a reasonable doubt," as she requested that the charges be dropped. Pirro also blamed the Department of the Interior for providing "less-than-complete information at the outset of the case." According to the brief, if the Department of the Interior had disclosed all the information in its possession from the beginning, "the government would not have sought an indictment by a grand jury."

Burgum responded publicly on X, rejecting Pirro's criticism and asserting that investigators had provided ample evidence. "We also provided the U.S. Attorney's office expert and eyewitness testimony to the damage done by vandals and provided every piece of evidence they asked for in the requested time line detailing each area of damage at the pool," Burgum wrote.

The decision represented a setback for the Department of Justice, which had previously backed Trump's claims and framed the legal proceedings as an effort to protect one of Washington's historic landmarks.