US President Donald Trump has threatened to fire US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, after she said the government would not press ahead with criminal charges of vandalism of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool against former Olympic athlete David Hearn.
The reflecting pool project is one of several changes to the landscape of Washington, DC that Trump has pursued during his second term in office.
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But following a multimillion-dollar refurbishment ahead of the ۲۵۰th anniversary of US independence this year, parts of the lining of the pool were seen floating on the surface, and algae turned the water from blue to green, which Trump claimed was caused by vandalism.
Hearn, ۶۷, was among a number of people arrested for suspected criminal damage to the “American flag blue” lining of the pool.
Pirro, however, acknowledged last week that the pool’s peeling sealant appeared to be the result of a “botched installation”, putting her at odds with the US president.
On Monday, Trump sharply criticised Pirro, who he had appointed as attorney for the District of Columbia in May last year, saying she had “choked” under pressure from a judge and “folded like an umbrella”.
Pirro met the president on Monday as he pondered firing her, but sources familiar with the matter told US broadcaster CNN late on Monday that Trump held back from firing his long-term ally.
Who is Pirro, and why has the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool become a flashpoint in her relations with Trump?
Here’s what we know:
Why was Hearn arrested for vandalism?
David Hearn, who said he only visited the reflecting pool to find out what the fuss was about, was among at least seven people arrested or cited over alleged damage to the pool.
He says he had put his hand into the water to examine a piece of lining which had started peeling away on June ۱۹. But he was accused of pulling the lining away, causing more than $۱,۰۰۰ in damage. He was charged with destruction of government property, an offence that carries a maximum prison sentence of ۱۰ years.
His indictment was announced at a news conference held by Pirro on July ۲. The prosecutor accused Hearn, an Olympic canoeist, of “forcefully and violently” ripping the newly installed liner of the reflecting pool, part of a renovation project Trump had championed.
She described his actions as “an affront to the dignity of our shared history” and warned that Hearn could face up to ۱۰ years in prison for the destruction of government property.
Then, this week, the charges were dropped when Pirro announced the damage had most likely been caused by faulty installation of the lining.
The pool has since been drained.
Who is Pirro?
Born to Lebanese-American parents in June ۱۹۵۱ in Elmira, New York, Pirro is currently the US attorney for the District of Columbia. She was hand-picked by Trump in May last year for an interim period, and her position in the Senate was confirmed in August ۲۰۲۵.
According to the US government, Pirro has worked in the legal field for several decades, having started as an assistant district attorney for Westchester County, New York, in ۱۹۷۵ and later working as the first female judge in the Westchester County Court from ۱۹۹۰ to ۱۹۹۳.
She also became the first woman elected to serve as Westchester County district attorney for three consecutive terms from ۱۹۹۴ to ۲۰۰۵ and was the first female president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York.
Pirro also played a key role in starting the first domestic violence unit in a prosecutor’s office in the US and has authored eight books.
Besides politics, Pirro has also appeared on television in the US true crime series The Jinx, which aired in ۲۰۱۵, as well as hosting the reality show You the Jury, which aired in ۲۰۱۷.
What has Trump said about Pirro?
When Trump hand-picked Pirro as the attorney for the District of Columbia, he said he was confident she would improve Washington, DC.
“Jeanine Pirro, I have no doubt will be an exceptional US attorney for the District of Columbia, one of the truly most important positions in our country of any position, where she will restore public safety in our nation’s capital, break up vicious street gangs and criminal networks, and ensure equal justice under the law. You’ll see very, very big improvements in the DC area, that I can promise you,” Trump said when he appointed her on May ۸, ۲۰۲۵.
Pirro, a Trump ally, vowed to tackle violence in the city and said DC would “again become a shining city on the hill in an America that President Trump has promised to make great again and will make safe again”.
But now, relations with Trump have frayed after Pirro refused to support the US president’s claim that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool had been vandalised.
In a motion filed on Friday afternoon, Pirro acknowledged that the accusations levelled against Hearn did not appear to be substantiated.
“The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism, as initially represented by [the Department of the Interior],” Pirro wrote.
Pirro emphasised she had not received the “new information” until after the criminal indictment against Hearn had been returned. She blamed, in part, the “barebones police reports” her office had received.
“It was not until after the return of the indictment, that the DOI [US Department of the Interior] provided additional documents to the [US Attorney’s Office for Washington, DC] indicating that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June ۲۰۲۶ was the result of flawed installation by the contractor,” Pirro wrote.
She added that the pressure to finish the reflecting pool renovation project before the Independence Day holiday – marking the ۲۵۰th anniversary of the US – contributed to the renovation’s failure. Trump had planned several events for the occasion.
“The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed,” Pirro explained, citing delayed installation work, inclement weather and repeated testing failures.
Why is Trump so angry with Pirro?
Trump has aggressively pushed claims that the algae and tears to the lining in the reflecting pool are the result of vandalism.
“We caught some people vandalising our beautiful reflecting pool,” Trump said at a news conference in June. “They took a cutter, a box cutter, or something very sharp. Can you imagine? Where do these people come up with this? And they threw a little fertiliser in the water.”
Separately, he suggested those responsible should face “years in jail” for their alleged crimes.
After Pirro’s announcement, Trump said she should have continued pursuing the case.
“Pirro made a mistake. It was vandalism,” Trump said, adding he was “really disappointed” in Pirro and that “she folded like an umbrella”.
According to US media reports, he has also considered firing Pirro over the reflecting pool saga.
In a post on his Truth Social Platform on Saturday, Trump said: “I disagree ۱۰۰% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the reflecting pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM.”
Trump and Pirro spoke by phone on Saturday, according to CNN. Sources familiar with the call said their conversation “wasn’t pretty”.
Following an in-person meeting with Pirro on Monday, sources told CNN that Trump had held back from firing her.
Neither the White House nor Pirro’s office has commented.
What happened to the reflecting pool?
The ۶۱۸-metre (۲,۰۲۸-foot) Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has served as the backdrop for many iconic moments in US history, including the ۱۹۶۳ March on Washington, when civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
It sits between the Washington Monument, a large obelisk, and the Lincoln Memorial, two popular tourist sites mere blocks from the White House. But the pool had long struggled with leaks along its granite edge and concrete bottom.
In April, Trump abruptly announced he would address the problem by relining the reflecting pool with swimming pool coating in the colour of the “American Flag Blue”.
The Trump administration granted a $۱۳.۱m contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, a company the president claimed to have worked with as a real estate developer, and which is led by one of his donors. The deal was struck without taking competitive bids, as is standard, on the basis that the renovation was necessary immediately.
By early June, Trump had announced the project was complete. But within days, a thick layer of green algae had appeared on the surface of the pool, and the blue coating appeared cracked, with sheets of paint flapping in the water.
On June ۱۱, a National Park Service engineer observed that the reflecting pool’s new lining had begun to peel, Pirro said in her announcement.
Citing the engineer’s report, Pirro wrote that the damage to the pool appeared to have been caused by “over spraying and delamination”.
