'Vandalism': Trump drops new Reflecting Pool photos after Pirro's decision

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump posted new photos late Saturday evening, August 8, alleging vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after prosecutors dropped criminal charges tied to the damage.

The images showed peeling coating and apparent graffiti, with each photo marked “vandalism.”

Trump renews pressure on Jeanine Pirro

Trump has continued to challenge US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s decision to drop charges against David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympian accused of vandalizing the site.

The president had urged Pirro on Friday to “re-visit her hastily made decision.” 

His latest posts kept the vandalism claim at the center of the dispute.

Pirro’s office previously concluded that contractors working on the renovation caused the damage rather than criminal actors. 

Court filings later revealed that the Interior Department had failed to provide key information about the pool’s damaged blue liner.

The office acknowledged that the department had provided “less than fulsome information.”

It also said the blue sealant began peeling “almost immediately” because of a rushed process.

Trump has disputed that explanation.

“The material was cut right where the videotape showed, for 300 feet or more,” Trump wrote in a post accompanying a screenshot from X. “People were on their knees with their hands in the water at the exact location of the ‘slashes.’” 

He also claimed there were witnesses and that “the flexible areas of the material were cut with a knife.”

Trump had previously said vandals used a box cutter or knife to create a nearly 300-foot slit in the pool lining. He also claimed fertilizer was poured into the water, causing rapid algae growth.

Trump criticizes Jeanine Pirro over dropped charges

The dispute became more personal after Pirro moved to drop the charges against Hearn.

Trump publicly criticized her from the Oval Office, saying, “I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella.”

He also said Pirro “choked” under pressure from the judge.

“Instead of going after the people who did it, he went after her, and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said. “I don’t know what the hell happened.”

Reporters later asked Trump whether he planned to fire Pirro over the decision. He responded to one journalist by saying, "You're fake news," and "Don't ever talk again."

Pirro had initially described Hearn’s alleged conduct as a “deliberate act” and said he had “woefully destroyed property.”

Her office later acknowledged that the government had not received the full information needed to support the case.

David Hearn's lawyers demand an apology

Hearn’s lawyers said the case should never have been brought.

“The Trump administration's case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought,” Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund, Mary Dohrmann of the Washington Litigation Group, and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP said in a statement to the Independent. 

“The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim,” they said. “The administration owes Mr Hearn an apology,” they added.