Pirro meets with Trump at White House amid questions about her future
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro met with President Donald Trump at the White House Monday afternoon amid questions about her future, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The meeting came after Trump said Pirro "choked" and "folded like an umbrella" in dropping charges last week against those charged with damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting. When asked about the future of Pirro's job, a White House official referred ABC News to Trump's comments earlier in the Oval Office in which he was critical of her decision to drop the case.
Trump has privately mused to aides about whether he should fire Pirro, according to sources who caution nothing on the matter is final until Trump says it.
In an Oval Office event earlier Monday, Trump said he was "very disappointed" in Pirro's decision to dismiss a felony indictment against three-time Olympian canoeist David Hearn last Friday. Pirro said in a 20-page filing that the damage was caused by "flawed installation by the contractor" and not vandalism as she and the president had long claimed.
Trump, however, continued to push allegations on Monday that vandals were responsible for cutting and tearing the pool lining. Trump said that Pirro "made a mistake" and "choked" under pressure from the judge in the case, later remarking that she "folded like an umbrella."
"The judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine. And frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department and I guess she choked," Trump said.
Hearn was arrested at the Reflecting Pool in late June and charged with a felony for allegedly causing more than $1,000 in damage. Hearn said he had only touched a piece of the liner that was peeled from the bottom and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In withdrawing the case, Pirro said new information indicated it was "difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism." In particular, Pirro pointed to internal National Park Service communication from June 11 that raised concerns about the peeling pool liner more than a week before Hearn was arrested. Pirro also dropped misdemeanor cases against three other people related to destruction of property at the pool.
The president, who has long insisted that someone maliciously vandalized the lining of the pool with a knife or boxcutter, first rebuked Pirro's decision to drop the Hearn case in a Saturday social media post.
"I don't know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM," Trump wrote at the time.
The president deflected when asked on Monday if he would consider removing Pirro.
Even as he insists vandalism damaged the pool, Trump has also acknowledged the project's contractors might bear some blame for rushing to finish the project before the Fourth of July.
"So now I'm not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism," Trump said Monday.
Trump also alleged that Pirro assessed the damage in the immediate aftermath of the holiday, when strewn fireworks were "laying all over the pool." That claim contradicts Pirro's Friday court filing, in which she said she visited the pool on July 1.
The pool, which was drained for repairs shortly after the Fourth of July holiday, is currently empty and fenced off from the public. The president promised on Monday that it would be fixed and reopened in two weeks at most.
