President Donald Trump on Saturday sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's assessment that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals, as he claims. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Pirro's office, in a court filing on Friday, moved to drop criminal charges against a former Olympian, David Hearn, who had been accused of deliberately damaging the pool after it underwent a renovation ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebration last month.
Trump, in a posting on social media, acknowledged that there "may have been some contractor difficulty" in the installation of a new pool liner. But he continues to insist "the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"
"I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool," Trump added in his post.
The dismissal was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed Trump's claims and billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark, a pet project of Trump. Pirro's decision to drop the case is also a rare moment during Trump's second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.
The president, without providing any clear new evidence, continued to allege on Saturday that the majority of the damage to the pool was caused by vandals.
Former Olympian pleads not guilty in Reflecting Pool damage case after Trump alleged vandalism. He was indicted on a felony charge.